The Hunter Within
by That Random Demon
Summary: A half-devil demon hunter finds a stakeout of six demigods while on a job, and before he knows it, he's stuck with them as what he thought was just a normal demon horde turns out to be something far worse. {Takes place before DMC 5, after The Blood of Olympus but before Trials of Apollo. Rated T for violence and language, rating may change.}
1. Mission 01: Let's Rock, Baby!

**Disclamer: I do not own the rights to either Devil May Cry, the Percy Jackson series, or the Heroes of Olympus books. These belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

Midnight in this area of the Bronx was dark, the occasional street light providing most of the ambient light around. It was a new moon, and the absence of the moon made it hard to see for most. Occasionally, a car might pass by, shedding a little light into the red-brick passage between buildings and streets. In this alley, a lone figure waited, sitting about a story up on a fire escape.

The figure's hair and stubble were as white as snow, but the face and figure suggested a man in his late forties. His red leather duster was faded and had a washed-out look, indicating the life and hardships it had been through. He wore an ordinary black T-shirt, black driving gloves, grey jeans, and slightly worn-out boots, giving him a grungy, somewhat homeless look. A pair of custom made handguns, one black and one white, were holstered inside of his jacket, easy to conceal when he wasn't using them but also easy to draw and fire when needed. A double-barreled shotgun was strapped to his right thigh, also easily concealable under the duster. The weirdest weapon he had in his possession, however, was the steel claymore in his back, which had a guard carved in the shape of a rib cage and an open-mouthed skull.

His grey-blue eyes looked across the alleyway, his fingers drumming against one of his knees as he waited for something. He looked like he had been sitting there for several hours, and after a few more moments, his head fell to look at the rusted metal he was sitting on as he quietly groaned. His right hand went to his jacket pocket, pulling out his work phone (which was an older model, as he never really found himself interested in all of the technological distractions that came with the newest phones) and calling one of the people on speed-dial.

"Morrison, looks like we got another no-show." He said as soon as the person on the other end picked up. His tone was slightly irritated, but cool and tired at the same time.

There was a sigh from the other end of the line, and then the deep, frustrated voice of his contact came over the line. " _Shit,"_ Morrison said, and there was a sound the man knew was his contact puffing on his cigar from the phone before he continued. " _Another one? We might have to put up a 'half-pay up front' sign or a no-show policy if this keeps up, Dante."_

"You're telling me." Dante sighed, pulling out his black handgun, Ebony, and spinning it on his finger as he talked on the phone. "If there's one thing I hate more than black olives on a fresh pepperoni pizza, it's-"

" _-having your time wasted."_ Morrison finished. " _I've heard it a million times. I'll tell you what, you wait there for an hour and I'll see if I can get the caller back on the line. If I can, we'll work something out, but if not, you'll just have to head back to the store."_

"That's the best news I've heard in the past five hours." Dante joked, then the demon hunter sighed. "Talk to you later, Morrison."

" _Good hunting, Dante,"_ Morrison said as Dante hung up and slid the phone back into his pocket. The demon hunter sighed, holstering Ebony and leaning back against the railing of the fire escape. He looked up at the night sky, drawing his claymore, Rebellion, from his back and lazily spinning it in his hands.

"You know, if I wasn't such an unlucky man, I'd wish for trouble to show up." He said to himself, resting Rebellion across his lap as he looked back down. He saw his own reflection in the demonic claymore's blade and smiled to himself as he rubbed his chin, moving his head as he admired his own reflection for a minute.

Looking back up, he saw something begin to emerge from the ground in the alleyway below him. A skeletal form emerged from the ground, hunched and coward-like as it's black-cloaked form shuffled forwards. In its hands, a large, rusted scythe was gripped, which had demonic runes etched down the blade. Dante sighed, looking at it and sheathing Rebellion on his back. "I hope you aren't it, little Caina," he muttered, smirking. "You wouldn't even be enough to get me warmed up."

Sure enough, that one Hell Caina was not everything. Several more began to emerge from the ground, and looking up, Dante could see several dark shapes that looked like ghosts flying up above the streets, towards a parking deck about a block away. "Oh, speak of the devil…" Dante muttered, then stood and flipped off of the fire escape and down into the mass of skeletal demons below.

"Woohooo!" Dante shouted, drawing Rebellion from his back and performing a Helm Breaker attack on the Hell Caina directly below him. The creature's skull was split clean in half, and most of its body gave way by the time he hit the ground. The Helm Breaker had the added effect of knocking several Hell Caina away from his flanks, giving him ample time to recover and begin to hack into the rest of them. A roar filled the crowd of demons, and they all got into battle stances, going on the defensive as he rushed them.

Rebellion slashed, stabbed, and bludgeoned as Dante made headway through the horde of Hell Caina, shouting, laughing, and cheering as he slew demons left, right, and center. He unleashed a Stinger into a condensed group, blasting them apart, and then held his sword with the grip by his eyes as red energy began to charge around the blade. "Go get 'em!" he shouted with a smile as he threw Rebellion into the group, the blade spinning and flying forwards in a straight line, never losing altitude.

Dante smirked, then slammed his fists together, sending a wave of fire flowing across his body. Once the fire settled, a pair of hell-forged spiked metal gauntlets with yellow eyes on the backs of the hands had formed on his arms, as well as a pair of spiked metal shoulder guards that looked like they had horns emerging from them fitted onto the shoulders of his jacket. On his feet were a set of metal greaves and a pair of metal boots, all designed with the same motif as the gauntlets and shoulder guards. All three pieces of armor glowed with hellfire, and as he felt the familiar heat from the armor pieces, he smirked. "Come on, Balrog!" he said, lunging for the nearest demon. "You don't want to miss out on the fun, do you?"

A flaming right hook slammed into the first demon in his path, knocking it onto the ground as Dante followed it up with a swift rabbit punch to the skull. It stopped moving, and the demon hunter turned to the next demon, delivering a hellfire-empowered uppercut straight to its jaw and soaring up into the air with it. He didn't remain in the air for long, charging fire on his fists before rocketing back to the ground and striking the concrete with explosive force. The shoulder guards vanished into ash, a pair of knee guards forming on his legs and adding to the plating on the greaves.

At some point during the punching and kicking spree that followed, Rebellion soared back to Dante, affixing itself back on Dante's back as he continued to pummel the Hell Caina surrounding him. He barely registered its return as he performed a breakdance-inspired spinning kick and spun like a top as he kicked through several Hell Caina. He spun back to his feet, performing a pair of upwards arcing kicks as he leaped into the air, which caught a trio of the skeletal demons and pulled them up with him.

He twisted in the air, then rocketed downwards with a diving kick that immolated the three demons he had taken up with him as well as several around his point of impact. As he stood, he counted a measly three or four demons left, all of which looked like they were considering surrender. Dante sighed, the hellfire-forged Balrog disappearing into ash as he drew Rebellion. "I hope you're ready!" he shouted, then lunged forwards.

A wide slash started the blade dance that followed, which was followed up by two more quick slashes which did serious damage to the remaining demons. Rebellion was spun around Dante's body twice, before the demon hunter executed several thousand stabs within the span of five seconds. Dante knew that the demons couldn't take much more from the blade, so he pulled it back, taking a step away as he flipped it into a reverse grip.

"One! Two!" he shouted, emphasizing each word with a diagonal slash, sending out a red energy slash in an X-pattern. They struck the demons, blasting them into the air into position as Dante wound up Rebellion like a baseball bat. "Finish!' he shouted, swinging the blade in a nearly 360-degree arc and bifurcating the demons with the blade and the wave of energy that followed.

"Wheew-whee!" he said, shouldering the claymore and grinning. "Nothing like fighting some low-ranking demons to get yourself warmed up!" He chuckled a little, looking around to see quite a few dozen red orbs just laying around him, spilled from the bodies of the demons. He smirked, extending a hand and absorbing all of the red orbs into himself.

He whipped out his phone, speed-dialing the same number he had before. He began to walk out of the alley, sheathing Rebellion onto his back as it was before and humming a little tune. The phone picked up once more, but instead of Morrison answering the phone, an older woman's voice answered. " _Devil May Cry,"_ she said. " _What can we do for you today?"_

"Hey, Trish!" Dante answered, grinning as wide as he always did. "Is Morrison there? I've got to talk to him."

" _Mmmm… He's busy right now, but I can take a message."_ Trish said, and Dante sighed inwardly as he heard the heels of her high-heeled black boots come to rest against his desk. ' _No one sits in my chair but me,'_ something deep and dark within him said, but he pushed it down as he spoke again.

"That sounds good." Dante said. "Tell him that if he's on the phone with the caller, he doesn't need to negotiate anymore. I've found what demons they're after, about five and a half hours after they were supposed to show up. And a lot of 'em, too."

" _Alright. You probably have it covered, but if you need the help…"_ Trish left the offer hanging, not really needing to finish it.

"I'll be fine, Trish," Dante said, then hung up, pocketing his phone. He looked out down the empty street, to the point where the demons were congregating. He smiled, whipping out Ebony and Ivory and pulling back their hammers. "Time to go to work, guys," he said to his guns, and then raced off down the street, his hands beginning to glow a dark red as he held the guns.

* * *

Six figures watched the shadow-cloaked shapes fly further down the street, clustered tightly in the shadows to keep themselves hidden from view. All of them had various blades of bronze, gold, and other metals, but no more than two of them had anything that could hope to hit the creatures from this range. No, they were watching, waiting to report back what they had seen to the higher-ups back at their camp over in long island. But the more they looked on, the more uneasy they became, and the more they prepared for a fight.

"I thought you said there were only a dozen, Thalia," one figure said, turning to one of the others. He was somewhat tall, with black hair, sea-green eyes, and semi-tanned skin, dressed in bronze battle armor over an orange t-shirt and blue jeans. He held a bronze sword in his hand in such a way that any trained warrior could tell he seemed on edge from all of this.

"There were when I last checked in here!" The aforementioned Thalia hissed, whirling on the black-haired boy. She had spiky black hair that fell to her shoulders, blue eyes that seemed to spark with electricity, and light freckles that ran across her nose. She was dressed in a white shirt, a silver jacket, silvery camo pants, and black combat boots, with a silver circlet on her head in place of a helmet. Slung across her back was a silver bow and a quiver full of silver arrows, and in her hands was a long, bronze spear with the tip pointed towards the ground so she didn't accidentally stab someone in the eye.

One figure sitting by the edge of the roof sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he never took his eyes off of the creatures flooding the streets below. His scraggly black hair was darker than that of the other two's, and his pale skin seemed to both glow in the ambient light and vanish in the dark shadows cast behind him. He wore a black bomber jacket over a black shirt and black, ripped jeans, all of which had a skull patch sewn somewhere onto them. On one hand, he wore a silver ring molded into a skull, and hanging from a chain belt around his waist was a sword made of a metal as dark as the midnight sky.

The fourth figure on the roof leaned against the door fo the roof access, watching all of what was happening without any interest. She had chocolate brown hair cut unevenly around her neck, eyes that seemed to kaleidoscope between green and blue, and skin that was darker than most of the others on the roof but free of any imperfections. She wore battle armor, similar to that of the first boy's, over an orange t-shirt and denim shorts that came down to about her mid-thighs. A sword was strapped to her hip, but she seemed content with the dagger in her hands, which she was sharpening on a whetstone she had pulled from her pocket.

"Shut it, both of you!" The fifth figure shouted, turning back to the two arguing and sighing. She was the shortest of the six, with skin the color of a roasted coffee bean, curly cinnamon hair that fell to her shoulders, and golden eyes that seemed to glow. She wore a thick, brown coat over a purple shirt with the emblem for Camp Jupiter on it, blue jeans, and heavy boots, a Roman cavalry sword hanging from her hip serving as her only weapon.

"The Roman's right. You're making too much noise." said the final figure, who was currently wrapping her hands with white strips of cloth. She was about the size of an average rugby player and fairly tall, several scars crisscrossing the muscles on her body. Her stringy brown hair was tied back loosely, leaving her face visible so she could see through her boar-like helmet which sat on the ground by her feet. Her armor was painted red, giving her the impression of bathing in blood as she wore it, and her spear crackled and glowed with red light.

Thalia and Percy, the first boy mentioned, turned away from one another and instead focused their attention on the street below. "What even are these things?" Percy thought aloud. "I haven't seen anything like them before."

"Don't know." The pale-skinned boy, Nico, said as he twisted the silver skull ring on his finger. "They seem like monsters, but… they're different in some way. I don't know how, though."

"Yeah, I see it too." The African-American girl said, pointing down to a creature that looked an awful lot like the Grim Reaper. "Take that one, for instance. It looks dead, and it feels like a reanimated spirit, but at the same time, it's like that thing hasn't ever been down to the Underworld."

"How does that work?" The chocolate-haired girl said, approaching them as she spoke. "It has to be either dead or alive, right? How can it be both?"

"I don't know, Piper," Nico answered, turning back to look at her. "I wish I had an answer, but I doubt anyone but my dad would know about them, and he's not exactly the best at sharing what he knows with me."

"What about those things?" Thalia asked, pointing to one of the shadowy shapes that flew about two stories beneath where they were perched. "What's their deal?"

Hazel, the African-American girl, spoke up next. "Again, I don't know. They're most definitely alive in the same way any other monster is alive, but they've got a very bad vibe about them. I don't really know how to describe it any other way."

"Well, whatever's up about them, doesn't matter to me." the girl in red armor said, picking up her helmet and spear and walking over to the edge of the roof. "What does matter is that we prepare for them discovering us. It's gonna happen sooner or later, and we need to be ready for it when it happens."

"I agree." Thalia and Percy said at the same time, stepping away from the edge and meeting with the armored girl to discuss battle plans. Piper and Hazel walked away as well, leaving Nico as the only person watching the street, which he was perfectly fine with.

He rubbed his thumb over his silver ring, leaning forwards a little as he watched the monsters move. The way they moved was akin to the movements of flies when they smelled rotting meat, or so it seemed to him. He could tell something was drawing them in, but what it was he could not see or sense. That may have been for the best, he realized, as whatever it may have been could be much worse than just the masses of them existing.

He was drawn back to reality by a sound he recognized, but it took him a minute to place. It was the roaring of an engine, of a motorcycle engine. But who would be driving down a street like this, at this hour, no less? Even with the Mist obscuring everything that was going on, someone driving a motorcycle at that speed would be dangerous and would no doubt get some angry New Yorkers on their case.

Nico's questions only grew as he spotted the rider in question.

The guy was taller than just about everyone on the roof, Nico could tell that much from just looking at him. His red coat flapped in the wind behind him, revealing a black shirt, grey jeans, and worn boots underneath. The white hair would have normally made Nico think the man was old, but the whooping and cheering and hollering was the kind that displayed a vigor which only came with the younger generations. A large, silver claymore was sheathed on the man's back, it's guard carved with decals that Nico couldn't quite make out.

His bike was even weirder, made of metal where it should be made of leather or rubber and the tires spraying sparks behind him as he rode. The front wheel had a quartet of sharp blades emerging from the axle, extending about a foot in front of the bike to skewer anything caught in their path. The bike itself was purple (not painted purple - the metal itself was actually purple), and by the rider's feet, there were a series of small, fin-like protrusions arranged to look like gills. The handles were covered by a weird disk-shaped metal armor piece, which glowed with purple light, and a pair of real-looking demonic horns emerging from it.

"WAAAAHOOOOO!" the man shouted, turning the bike and driving it up the back of one of the skeleton monsters (which was caught in the back wheel afterward and promptly shredded into bone chips). He leaped off the bike, grabbing a handle with one hand and swinging it like a club into one of the shadow-covered monsters, which seemed to phase right through the creature but dispersed a good chunk of its shadowy cloak. He then hurled the bike into the creature, dispersing its cloak completely and crushing the scorpion-esque creature within into paste as both bike and monster crashed into the pavement. What shocked Nico even more was that, despite the bike seemingly disappearing into electricity, the rider reached in front of him and summoned the bike back underneath him.

"Hey, what in Hades was that?" Clarisse, the girl in the red armor, asked, marching over to the edge and glaring at Nico. Nico looked up at her, then looked down to the rider again, who had somehow split the motorcycle in two, forming it into two massive chainsaws and was now using it as a pair of large swords, albeit with more reckless swings and wider spins. Out of words to describe it, he simply pointed in that direction, face morphed into a dumbfounded expression.

"...What in the fuck?" Clarisse said aloud, alerting the rest of their group that something was going on. They rushed over, weapons drawn, only to lower them in surprise as they watched the man (who was either a demigod like them, a mortal who could see through the mist and could somehow harm monsters, or a mortal who was just out of his mind and lucky) tear through another one of the flying monsters with his buzzsaw-blade-things, dropping to the ground as the weapons fizzled away into electricity.

The six demigods were silent for a moment, and then all at once, they began to comment, making a cacophony that was almost impossible to decipher.

"If Leo was here right now, he'd be having a fit about those weapons…" Piper said sadly.

"The hell is he doing?" Thalia shouted. "He's gonna get himself killed! No one can go up against all of that alone!"

"Relax, Hunter." Clarisse said, bumping her in the side with her elbow. "I can tell from a glance who's a real fighter and who isn't, and believe me, he's got some experience under his belt."

"Is he a half-blood?" Percy thought aloud, leaning forward and squinting to get a better look at him. "There's no way any mortal could have weapons like his. I haven't seen anyone fight like that, either."

"He doesn't seem like a demigod to me," Hazel said, squatting down next to her half-brother Nico. "I've never met a demigod who hadn't received some kind of blessing who could live to be that old."

"He's not old," Nico said to Hazel. "His hair might be white, but I have a feeling that it's genetic. Besides, just look at him. Could an old man do all of that?"

A screech interrupted them as all of the monsters on the street turned towards the figure in red, drawn away from whatever they were seeking and focusing their wrath on him. The demigods watched as the figure in red drew his claymore and began to fight, but their attention was caught suddenly by a feeling they all felt. It was… a wrongness that permeated the air, one that Percy might have described as similar to Tartarus, but it wasn't exactly like that. It was like… something had shown up that was never supposed to exist in this realm, and they had just caught the tail end of it leaving.

"I think that's our cue…" Thalia said, stepping back from the edge of the roof and drawing her bow.

* * *

Dante jumped off of the Mephisto he had just used as a springboard, turning himself upside-down and firing a rain of bullets beneath him, which tore the demon into tatters and destroyed a couple of the demons standing below it. His hands glowed with red energy once more as he landed, and he opened fire on one of the demons with glowing bullets, which reduced it to paste after only a few seconds. He switched his aim, twisting Ebony behind him and Ivory straight ahead to fire at two separate demons at once.

He had missed this kind of thing. With all of the no-shows and faked calls he had gotten recently (plus the event that happened while he was stuck in the Underworld which none of his companions seemed willing to discuss with him), it had seemed like the demonic presence in the general range of his influence had finally wizened up and left. Of course, he still had Nero's mobile unit to help with far-away jobs, but he'd really needed some kind of actual demon to fight to get his blood pumping and the money flowing (he had debts to pay, and he'd racked up some interest with Lady during his time 'on vacation').

Ebony and Ivory vanished back into his coat as Coyote-A was pulled from his hip and fired behind him, and the tell-tale rasps of a dying demon let him know that he had hit his mark. A quick flick of his hand was all it took to eject the spent shells and load another pair in, which he fired into a Hell Caina that thought he couldn't see it. Coyote-A flicked between his hands, spraying buckshot to his left, right, and front as he pulled the trigger, ejected the shells, and fired again in a different direction.

Coyote-A went back into its holster as well, Balrog surrounding his fists, arms, legs, and shoulders once again. He flipped upwards, body briefly surrounded by fire as he leaped out of the way of several strikes and blasts, landing a few yards away and crossing his arms. "Come on, I thought you wanted me dead!" he taunted, tapping his foot and smirking. "Come at me! I'm not going anywhere!" The demons roared, rushing in his direction with caution thrown to the wind.

Dante stood still, drumming his fingers on his bicep as his arms remained crossed. He could have dodged away at any moment, been out of the way of the incoming demons long before they reached him, but he was nothing if not a man of style, and he had a plan already forming in his head. The demons were only about three yards away, and still, he didn't move.

They were at two now, and only then did Dante uncross his arms. His hands spread open in a 'come and get me' gesture as he shook his head, the fire flowing from Balrog beginning to fade as he stood. A feeling from all around him and from within urged him to move and fight, to kill, but he remained still as ever as the demons rossed one more yard. One more yard until he was back into the fight.

At the last possible second, Dante reached down and flicked the bottom of his coat in front of his face. There was a flash of red, and then the blades and claws of the demons whizzed through thin air. Dante appeared in a similar flash in the air above them, Balrog's flames blazing brightly as the now-reinforced boots launched the demon hunter downward in a fashion similar to that of a comet. He then began to spin like a breakdancer, legs extended and burning with flames as he began to create a miniature tornado. He impacted with demons, burning them, bludgeoning them, and dragging them along with him as he spun.

After a few seconds of this, Dante spun to his feet, the armor on his legs disappearing and reforming on his shoulders. He cracked his knuckles, rolling his shoulders to get the tension out of them as he looked around at the bloodied and battered demons. "Alright, who's next on the chopping block?" He shouted, hoping to catch the attention of some other demons heading towards the parking deck they were being drawn to.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up suddenly, alerting him to a possible threat behind him. He sidestepped and twisted his body to face it, and found himself watching the silver tip of an arrow fly past him and into a recovering Mephisto behind him. Several more followed, some striking the ground nearby and some stabbing into the demons around him. He looked up, frowning as his arms crossed once more.

Standing on the roof of the building in front of him was a girl. She couldn't have been older than 18, but she stood with the confidence of a veteran fighter. In her hands was a longbow, a silver-tipped arrow already resting on the string, having been drawn from the quiver across her back. In her spiky black hair was a silver circlet, matching the silver-and-white clothes she wore. He couldn't make out anything else beyond that, as she was too high up for even his superhuman senses to make out.

"Ugh…" he sighed, the fire on his gauntlets going out as he facepalmed. "You have got to be kidding me…"

His attention was pulled away from the girl on the roof as three figures emerged from the shadows in the alley to the left of the building. The first was a pale-skinned boy who reminded Dante of a stereotypical biker, with his messy black hair, black jacket, and chain belt holding up his black jeans. The second was a dark-skinned girl wearing blue jeans and an unzipped brown jacket, revealing a purple shirt with weird designs that he could have cared less about. The third was another black-haired boy, wearing bronze battle armor over an orange shirt and jeans.

The first girl vaulted off of the roof of the building, using her apparent acrobatic skill to make sure she landed. Seconds later, a figure in boar-themed armor painted red landed next to her, dropping the girl they were holding and drawing a glowing spear and shield from her back. The girl who was in the armored figure's arms moments before regained her balance, sweeping her chocolate-colored hair from her eyes before standing up, revealing that she was wearing bronze armor as well.

There was a long moment of silence as the six new arrivals (who all were pretty much teenagers) and Dante sized each other up. Dante counted at least six weapons in plain sight, but he suspected that a few of them may have had some weapons concealed. He made no attempt to hide any of his already visible weapons, knowing that if they wanted to hurt him, they would've already started their attack.

A few more long moments passed, and then Dante spoke quietly. "You get lost on the way to the Renaissance Fair or something?" he asked, looking around at all of them. "'Cause a bunch of kids in armor isn't something you see every day in this city."

"We're not kids." the silver-clad archer said, gaining a scowl on her face. "And we're here to deal with these monsters. This-" she gestured to the weapons and armor of the group- "is just what we use to do that."

Dante sighed and rolled his eyes, uncrossing his arms as he twisted his back foot so that it was perpendicular with his front foot, which was aimed directly at the silver-clad archer. He spoke, slowly moving to keep them from drawing weapons whilst getting into a ready stance. "Okay, listen. First off, you really don't need to help me out here. I've got this." Balrog's steel scales began to radiate heat as Dante focused, humming with a familiar fiery power as he charged it with demonic power. "Second, I thought I was the only one on this job. I'll have words with the caller if they offered to pay you as well, because once I'm signed on, no one else is getting a slice of my money." The cracks in the fire-powered gauntlets began to emit an orange light, similar to that of magma. "Third, if you're into demon hunting, then you're bad at it. You're paying too much attention to me, and not enough to what's going on around you."

With that, Dante punched forward with his right hand, following up immediately with his left. The eyes on the back of Balrog's hands launched from their sockets, taking all of the heat and flame from the gauntlets and using it to become meteors which launched past the archer and the spear lady. They hit their intended target, a Scarecrow which had just formed behind the unaware kids, and detonated into a blossom of flame, which incinerated the demon and left nothing behind. The eyes reassembled in their sockets, their color faded and dull. In the space it left behind, everyone could see several more Scarecrows appearing from dark shadows where the ambient light didn't reach.

"Now, out of my way." Dante continued, stepping forwards and drawing Rebellion as Balrog vanished. "I need to earn my pay."

* * *

 **Hey, what's going on? I'm not sure why I made this, but I did, and now I feel like sharing it.**

 **Anyways, I know I screwed up on some of the bits in this, but bear with me. I am not Dante or any of the other characters, nor have I written them before, so I'm trying my best. Also yes, I know Cavaliere shouldn't exist before DMC5. Do I care? Not really.**

 **Anyways, If you like this, why not show me some support? I'd love to hear feedback, as well as tips on how to write any of these characters, as I'm not a great writer and haven't read the HoO books in a while. Reviews are always appreciated, and if you really want to, you could tell me what your favorite Devil Arm (guns like Artemis and the Nightmare guns count, but not man-made guns) or demon from Devil May Cry is.**

 **That Random Demon, signing off!**


	2. Mission 02: Friends and Foes

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to either Devil May Cry, the Percy Jackson series, or the Heroes of Olympus books. These belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

Within the walls of the parking deck, demons milled about in the dozens on all of the levels, moving in disorganized groups without a leader. They patrolled, fought, snarled at one another in demon-tongue, and wandered around each level of the parking deck without any force to control them. However, despite the freedom they were given, they all avoided one particular section of the parking deck: the top level.

On the top level of the parking deck, a figure stood, humanoid in appearance but so much more. She stood about fifteen feet tall, though that was hard to tell, as she was hovering about five inches off of the ground. She was dressed in a black dress woven out of the shadows, with a matching black cloak and hood that covered most of her features. Six long, frail arms wrapped in shadowy ribbons emerged from the sleeves of the dress, each tipped with seven-inch-long claws at the end of her six-fingered hands. A blindfold was tied around her eyes, and her pearly white-skinned face was shrouded by the shadows surrounding it. Four horns emerged from her head, two twisting forward in a bovine fashion while two stuck up more like a gazelle's.

A haunting tune floated out from her closed lips as she worked, quiet yet loud at the same time. Her hands flicked and twisted, creating spheres and lines of energy and pulling them together into a shape. The energy became threads of light, darkness, fire, lightning, and other elements, taking the shape of a figure, then gaining color as she wove a being into existence. The haunting tune became louder and filled with more vigor as she worked, coming to a crescendo as the being was completed. The figure stood, three dimensional and whole, a normal human except for the distinct lack of features on their face.

" _ **Hmmm…"**_ she put a hand to her chin, resting two more on where her hips should be and crossing two more across her chest. " _ **...Adequate. I am getting worse, it seems."**_ The two hands on her hips vanished within her cloak, and the other four extended forwards, lifting the figure into the air with telekinesis. Her fifth and sixth hands reemerged, gripping a pair of long, curved blades that were sharp on both sides.

Without another moment spared, she stabbed both blades into the figure's stomach, slashing outwards and splitting it at the waist. The two pieces hit the ground and exploded, spraying ash and energy outwards. It washed harmlessly across her clothes, and as the dust settled, she banished the twin blades. All of her hands disappeared within the shadowy cloak as she floated up a little higher, moving towards the waning sounds of combat to one side of the parking complex.

" _ **Perhaps it is anticipation."**_ She said to herself, the stoic and unmoving face of the woman shifting to a slightly more concerned expression. This change was only brief, however, as her face shifted back to an almost mask-like stillness. " _ **Well, not all can have what they wish for, I suppose."**_ One of her hands raised from her cloak, the palm obscured by a flat disk of silver magic which elongated into a whip made of what looked like quicksilver.

She hesitated for a moment, and then, as if she could see him clearly, she flicked her hand towards Dante. The whip followed suit, stretching out like a bungee cord and nicking Dante across the back of the neck before retracting back into the magical disk. She "watched" as the demon hunter hissed in pain, wiping at the back of his neck almost as if a fly had bitten him. But she was sure in her craft, and she knew that what she did never left a perceivable mark on her victims. Satisfied, she turned away, the hand that had previously conjured the silver disk snapping its fingers as she did.

A dark, shadowy shape floated through the pavement of the top level of the parking complex, nearly ten feet from her. It bore a striking resemblance to the Grim Reaper, with a long, black cowl of shadows wrapped around its seemingly humanoid form and a large, rusted scythe clutched in its bony hands. However, where the skeletal face of the Reaper should have been, there was only a white porcelain mask carved into the likeness of a cherub. The creature looked up to her, then bowed deeply out of respect for its master.

" _ **Prepare our forces, for we have guests coming for our home."**_ the woman said, turning to the creature, which was just over a third of her height. " _ **The son of the traitor, as well as six celestial-spawned. They expect a welcoming party, and we do not wish to disappoint."**_

The creature nodded, then dove back through the pavement, leaving her alone. She was still for a moment, then looked to one side, watching as a large shape took off from the railing of the parking deck on the opposite side she was. " _ **You send your pet to watch, hmm?"**_ She growled, her one visible hand balling into a fist which suddenly began to spark with red demonic lightning. " _ **You do not trust me, even after I gave my word? Why, then, should I trust you?"**_ She flicked the hand out, sending a four foot wide beam of dark crimson lightning into the spot the bird was just sitting. " _ **...but, I am nothing if not insightful, and I would be lying if I said that I did not expect this."**_ With that, she snapped her fingers, dissolving into shadows and vanishing from view.

* * *

"Shit!" Dante hissed as he felt a stinging pain in his neck. It felt like a two-foot long mosquito which had just drank a gallon of hot sauce had bitten him square on the neck, and once the mosquito had left, someone had dumped salt and lemon juice on the wound. It was more surprising than painful, to him at least, as he could actually feel the pain that it caused (he had built up quite the pain tolerance, and normally, things like broken limbs or gunshots didn't hurt much and would normally heal in a matter of hours). He swiped his hand across the back of his neck, but all he felt was his hair and skin, no wound to speak of.

He shook his head, wiping at his neck once more before launching himself back into the fray. The few remaining demons were scattered (they would also have been disorganized, had they not been mindless Scarecrows), and a few well-placed shots from Ebony and Ivory took down the stragglers. "God, I love you guys," he whispered to the guns out of habit, spinning them on his fingers before holstering them back in his coat.

The six allies he had just met all breathed sighs of relief, lowering their weapons and beginning to nurse their nicks and scrapes. Scarecrows weren't known for their accuracy, so there was nothing serious, but with all of that armor, he'd expected less injuries. Sighing and digging a hand into his pocket, he fished out a small Vital Star and tossed it to the girl in the red armor. "Crack it open," he explained before she could ask, "It'll help with the healing."

Hesitantly, the armored girl snapped the star-shaped crystal in half, revealing it to be hollow inside. Before anything could be said, though, the two halves evaporated into a greenish vapor, which washed over her and seemed to take all of the small scratches and bruises with it. Dante could tell that she was definitely feeling better, and he couldn't blame her. Vital Stars had that effect on people.

"What was that?" she turned to him and asked, looking down to her now empty hands.

"The result of a little practicing in alchemy," he replied. "They're called Vital Stars. I don't need many anymore, and I was feeling generous."

"...thanks." Her reply came with her eyes turning back to him as she gave him a look of very hesitant, very suspicious gratitude. However, before they could exchange any more words, the black-haired archer grabbed the collar of Dante's coat and attempted to pull him to her eye level.

What happened instead was that his coat slid down his arms down to just below his elbows, exposing a little bit of the skin on his arms between where the coat was and where the short sleeves on his shirt ended. Rebellion, somehow, remained sheathed on his back, despite not being strapped down or sheathed to anything visible, which baffled the six. However, their attention was drawn by the several scars covering just the small area of skin they could see. They criss-crossed over one another, and while they seemed thin and old, they were innumerable. The muscles underneath were large, but easy enough to conceal within the coat.

"Hey." Dante said, rolling his shoulders and sliding his arms all the way back into the sleeves, an act which pulled the archer forward just a step. "Don't mess with the coat. If you need something, tap me on the shoulder." Regardless, he turned around and crossed his arms, looking down at her.

It took the archer a moment to remember what she had to say, but when she did, her face hardened into a glare. "You-" she jabbed him in the chest with a finger as she said that, "-have a lot to answer for. You obviously know a lot more than you're letting on, and if we're gonna be stuck with you while we take care of this, we need to know you aren't hiding anything first."

"Hold it." Dante raised a hand to cut her off. "I'm not saying anything until I know who I'm saying it to. But you're right. I do know some things about what's going on here." With that last part, he waved a hand in a circle, gesturing to everything around them.

All six of them stopped what they were doing, stepping away from him and huddling up. They began to whisper, clearly about him, and while he could hear just about everything they were saying (the perks of being a half-devil), he tuned it out, as they were trying to keep what they were talking about hidden from him. Instead, he busied himself with going around and collecting the red orbs left behind by the demons by hand.

By the time he had finished, they seemed to have come to a decision, as they nodded in unison and broke their huddle. "Finally, you're done." Dante said, making a show of popping his back. "And here I was, starting to feel old."

Most of them seemed to ignore his words, save for the armored girl (who facepalmed and sighed) and the tanned girl (who smirked and rolled her eyes). "Alright, we tell you who we are and why we're here, and you tell us what you know?" The armored boy asked, extending a hand for him to shake.

Dante instead high-fived the boy, then patted him on the back. "No need to be formal, buddy. We'll talk on the way over." He said, then started walking, leaving the confused boy behind as he walked towards his destination.

It only took them a moment to catch up to him, and once they did, they began to talk. He learned their names first, and when it came around to him saying his name, he'd given his real name to them, as he was on the job and they'd find out soon if he didn't. Then, he found himself in odd and semi-familiar territory when they suddenly brought up mythology and began to explain some of it to him.

"Hold on." Dante stopped, turning to Thalia and giving her a questioning stare. "What does mythology have to do with any of this? As far as I'm concerned, most mythologies are just people's way of explaining away demons, devils, and the chaos they bring with them."

All of them seemed to hesitate for a moment, looking at one another as if they had some bad news to break to him, but none of them wanted to. Finally, Nico, the punk-looking biker guy, spoke up. "Because the gods are very real." He said. "And all six of us are direct descendants of them."

Most people's reactions to this knowledge would be reasonable. Some might stare with mouths agape, some might throw themselves on their knees and beg for forgiveness, some might just scream "WHAT THE FUCK" and start to run. Hell, some might even ask for them to prove it or just not believe them at all. All of these would have been things that they'd experienced before.

Dante did none of these things. Instead, he just said, "Huh. Cool," and then kept walking.

To be honest, it made Dante feel both more comfortable and out of place among these guys. On the one hand, they weren't fully human either, and knowing that they were at least part god was kind of comforting, as they knew what it was like to be outcasts. On the other hand, though, they were part god, and he was half demon. He had no idea how they would react to any kind of demonic power, whether they'd question him about it or accuse him of being a demon himself (which meant a whole lot more than one might think for a half demon). Either way, he'd have to keep his powers under wraps, and definitely keep himself from going into his Devil Trigger while they could see him.

"...I thought you didn't know much about mythology." Thalia said as the rest of the demigods started walking.

"I don't." he replied. "As a matter of fact, religion, mythology, and I aren't on the best terms as of this moment. I think religion's still mad at me for blowing up that statue a couple years ago."

There was silence for a moment, and then Piper spoke up. "You have a LOT of explaining to do, Dante." she said, and Dante felt… something envelop his mind as he registered her words. It was dispelled moments later as his demonic side shredded through it as it did with most kinds of magic.

"Yes," he chuckled knowingly, knowing just how crazy everything he'd done would sound. "Yes I do."

* * *

"So let me get this straight." Nico said after Dante had finished explaining the weird and complicated history of the human world and demon world to them. "These monsters- demons- they come from another level of existence, and one day, thousands of years ago, they just up and decided to attack the human world?"

"Yep." Dante said, nodding as he did.

"And humanity was getting their asses handed to them, up until the demon's general, Sparta-"

"Sparda."

"-Right, Sparda, had a change of heart and took the side of humans. He sealed away the emperor of demons, chained up all of his fellow soldiers into a demonic tower called the Temen-ni-gru, and placed a seal around our world to prevent demons from entering?"

"That's pretty much it, yeah." Dante confirmed.

"Bullshit." Clarisse said bluntly. "There's no way that a war this big would go unheard of, even if most of the people fighting in it died. We would have heard of it by now."

"There's the kicker. There's evidence of it everywhere." Dante said, hand bumping the flat of Rebellion's blade as he spoke. "Have any of you ever heard of the huge explosion in Capulet City?"

"Wait, what?" Several of the demigods questioned.

"Yep. That was the Temen-ni-gru. Came up in the dead center of the city, and nearly ripped Sparda's seal a new one as the ritual to awaken it was completed. Some madman wanted the power of Sparda for himself, and he almost got it, before the keys to the demon world, being Sparda's own blade on one side and an amulet of immense power on the other, were separated from one another, and the portal closed when the two halves of the amulet fell into the opposite sides of the portal. Soon after, the entire tower fell to pieces, and no one could pinpoint a reason other than a gas leak which caused hallucinations and a large explosion in the center of the city."

"How do you know all of this?" Hazel asked, bewildered.

"My business used to be based there, before an… incident occured, and I was forced to move." Dante replied. "Do you believe me now?"

"...Not really, no." Percy replied. "What about this demon emperor guy? What happened to him?"

"I- umm…" Dante trailed off, looking as though he was racking his brain in thought. "...I think he's still sealed. Pretty sure Sparda was extra careful with the seals on him."

"But if Sparda sealed the demons away, how are they still showing up in our world?" Nico asked, hand tapping against the pommel of his sword. "The barrier's still there, right?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's as good as it used to be." Dante explained. "Think of it like a wall. The demons can't break through the wall, they can't climb it, but they can crack it just enough for a small number of demons to sneak in. The Temen-ni-gru almost made a huge hole in the wall, but even though it was fixed, it left behind a lot of cracks."

Before their conversation could continue, however, a loud grinding noise drew their attention to the parking deck once more. They all turned, watching through the clear wall of the elevator shaft as the car of the elevator plummeted down and smashed into the base of its shaft. "Shit," Dante muttered, taking off at a sprint towards the building.

By the time the others caught up with him, he was standing a few feet past the automatic pay station, which was smashed to pieces. He was looking around, searching for some kind of threat with Rebellion drawn. The six others drew their weapons as he faced away from them, expecting some kind of surprise attack.

"You know," Dante chuckled as he turned back to face them. "I'm surprised. I expected at least a little welcoming pa-"

What happened next happened almost too fast for one to perceive, but after a few seconds, the demigods could understand what had happened.

A white van, thrown by something they could not see, slammed into Dante and sent both man and vehicle tumbling away. At the same time, several dozen demons, some the same kinds they had fought earlier and some completely new, emerged from shadowy tears that materialized from thin air. The van eventually tumbled into the far wall, leaving no sign of Dante as it created a large crater in the concrete. The demons all hissed in triumph, scattering out and surrounding the six demigods.

"Dante?!" Piper shouted, looking at where the van had impacted. "Dante! Are you still alive!?"

"Worry about him later!" Clarisse shouted, bashing her shield into the face of a Hell Caina that got too close. "When there's not demons trying to tear our souls from our bodies!" She punctuated the end of that sentence by stabbing her spear straight through it's head and striking the one behind it in the face. After pulling her spear out of its body, she slammed the butt end of it into another demon, then spun the spear around and stabbed it into the creature's gut.

Percy closed his hand into a fist, parrying an incoming scythe swipe with his own sword as he raised his fist. The ground shook for a moment, and them all along the street, manhole covers began to burst as sewer water shot out of them, creating several geysers of disgusting water all along the road. Percy leaped into the air as the water swept towards him, the stream catching him and engulfing him. He flicked his hand, and several large fists made of water emerged from the serpentine stream and began to pummel the demons around him.

Nico and Hazel stood back to back, blades drawn and staring across at the demons surrounding them. They were still, patient, and this drew out the ire of the demons around them, leading to one of them losing its cool and taking a large swipe at them. A few moments before the blade connected, Nico and Hazel vanished, appearing outside of the circle and beginning their assault.

Hazel lunged forward, swinging her Spatha in several wide arcs and hacking several Hell Caina to pieces. Nico, meanwhile, struck one with his blade, causing it to discorporate into ash as Nico seemed to fade back into the shadows. Hazel and Nico's attacks proved effective, and soon enough, the demons were nothing but ash and blood under their shoes.

Thalia and Piper, meanwhile, were stuck in the middle of a desperate fight as the demons surged towards them. They found out rather quickly that the flying type was almost impossible to kill with sword or daggers, so Thalia got stuck with the job of taking them down with her arrows. This proved to be difficult, however, as whatever these things were made of did a damn good job at hiding their bodies, which caused several of her arrows to shoot straight through their cloaks. She had taken to aiming for anything visible, and with her Hunter's aim, she landed several mortal blows on these demons.

Piper, meanwhile, was stuck with crowd control, a job which was more than she knew she could handle. She was busy shouting commands with her charmspeak (her favorite so far was "There! On your left! Kill it!"), but whenever something came too close to her and Thalia, she was forced to take it down with her sword, a feat which was no small task, considering that they had the longer and more deadly weapons. Still, she wasn't as much of a damsel in distress as some of the Aphrodite cabin, and she managed to dispatch each and every threat that came her way within half a minute.

Clarisse, however, wasn't being flashy or stylish as she pummeled and stabbed through demons left and right. Her shield was left behind, the rim of it sunken into the asphalt and separating the head of a Scarecrow from its body. She only carried her spear, using it like a staff as well as a spear as she riposted, blocked, ducked, and dodged around attacks from the demons she was fighting. She slashed across the throat of a downed Mephisto, then spun her spear in a wide circle around her to clear away the approaching Hell Caina. She hurled her magic spear into one of them, and then, after cracking her knuckles, launched after it with the strength of a heavyweight boxer behind her punches.

The fight only lasted a couple minutes, and none of the demigods took any serious damage from what they had to fight. After a couple moments for resting, the six demigods looked over to the van which had hit Dante earlier. "So… you think he's still alive?" Thalia asked aloud.

Her question was answered as a loud grunt of effort sounded and the van was launched into the air away from the wall. It flipped and landed on its roof, rolling a couple times before coming to a stop a few yards to their right. The heads of the demigods whipped back around, their eyes landing on Dante, who swiftly resocketed his dislocated arm as a faint red glow surrounded his body. He shook himself out, then looked over to them, smirking as if nothing had happened.

"So, I see you took care of things for me." He said, gesturing to the discorporating demons by their feet. "Good. I was worried that I'd have to fight 'em off with a dislocated shoulder." Judging from his tone, he was joking with them.

"...Did you throw that van with only one arm?" Percy asked, looking back at the now-wrecked vehicle in question.

"Nah," Dante shook his head. "I had to push it back a bit- it was sitting against my ribs, you see- and then I kicked it away so I could stand up."

"...Okay then." Percy replied, at a loss for any other form of reply.

Dante looked around, then back to them, speaking with an almost serious tone. "The road's only going to get rougher from here. Are you sure you're up for it?"

"D'ya need to ask?" Clarisse asked, smirking and shouldering her spear.

"You're stuck with us now, old man." Thalia teased, earning a smirk out of the demon hunter.

Nico shrugged, looking over at Hazel. "You think you're gonna be able to keep yourself from melting into darkness?" The African-American girl asked. Nico nodded in response, and both of them caught the raised eyebrow Dante gave at her question.

Percy smirked as well, collapsing his sword back into a pen. "Sure!" He said. "How hard could it-"

"Don't finish that sentence." Dante cut him off. "When it comes to demons, it can always get worse. Trust me on that."

"'Sides, Percy," Piper added, sheathing her sword on her back. "You wouldn't want to tempt fate, would you?"

This got a chuckle out of everyone. Unbeknownst to them, however, there was an eighth figure watching from the shadows, chuckling along with them.

* * *

 **I can't stop writing this. It's been four days and I'm already through with the third chapter. You can probably tell that I rushed this, and I'm not happy with some bits, but I think any more and I might just never finish the next chapter.**

 **Reviews:**

 **YukkiAsuna-Chan: I would agree. It's not like any god/titan/giant (save for Tartarus and maybe two others, I'm not sure) can pull a dimension out of nowhere just to fight you, and yet Dante has fought and won against (possibly) two beings who can do just that.**

 **Kamencolin: Lucifer is a pretty great DA, I won't lie, but I never really got invested in all of the crazy things you can do with it (plus, I think it's Combo B is a little bit lacking in creativity). I really liked the concept art for it, though.**

 **Treyalexander63917: I wasn't aware there was another DMC x PJO crossover. I'll have to read it sometime. But while I didn't know that Dante had surpassed Sparda in terms of power (was it in the anime? I need to finish it if so.), I do know that Mundus was not only the devil, but he was considered the God of Evil (don't remember the source, sorry) and had pretty much ultimate power in the Demon World, so that gives me a base for Dante's power level. But you are right. No mortal could hope beat Dante in a fair fight, save for one (I hope).**

 **Ptl (both of your reviews): I'm glad you like it. I could totally see someone like Hephaestus blasting Dante with a titanic blast of fire, only for Dante to stand up a few seconds later, brush the ash off his arms, and giving a remark similar to the one he gave Berial about needing to replace his coat again. I don't know about how Lady's going to get Celestial Bronze ammunition, seeing as it's really hard for anyone but a demigod or monster to find, much less forge, but I'll see about it. Nevan's a cool idea for this, though.**

 **Drago1401: Pandora is a great choice, and while I'm a little sad to see that it won't be returning in 5, I'll see where I can fit it into this story.**

 **Anyways, the first scene of this chapter was to introduce the main villain of this story, who I want to be a significant threat throughout the story. Look for the name next chapter, but I will hint that A. the name is from Greek Myth, and B. she's based on the Sins, Deaths, Fausts, and Mephistos, but with far more power.**

 **Anyways, If you like this, why not show me some support? I'd love to hear feedback, as well as tips on how to write any of these characters, as I'm still kinda feeling unsure about my portrayal. Reviews are always appreciated, and if you really want to, you could tell me what your favorite Devil Arm (guns like Artemis and the Nightmare guns count, but not man-made guns) from Devil May Cry is.**

 **That Random Demon, signing off!**


	3. Mission 03: The Darkness Of Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to either Devil May Cry, the Percy Jackson series, or the Heroes of Olympus books. These belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

"So, what's the deal with your sword?" Clarisse asked Dante as they walked along the concrete sidewalk towards the stairs.

"What deal?" Dante asked, looking over his shoulder lazily. "It's just a sword. Why so curious?"

' _I am not just a sword.'_ A voice snapped in his head, and Dante's smile grew a little as he recognized it.

' _But do they need to know that?'_ He replied telepathically, nudging Rebellion with his elbow as he listened for Clarisse's response.

' _Fair enough,'_ came Rebellion's reply before the blade went dormant once more.

"Well, I've never seen a sword so…" Clarisse paused, thinking of the right word to use. "...elaborately detailed that didn't have at least a little bit of a story behind it."

"I have, but that's besides the point." Dante said. "The blade's name is Rebellion. She's a gift from my dad. He gave it to me as a kid, just before he…" Dante trailed off, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh… Sorry, I didn't know…" Clarisse said after a moment.

"It's fine. I didn't find out until several years after he left." He shook his head, waving her off. "'Sides, he had a pretty dangerous job. It was bound to happen eventually." After a moment, he gave a "Hmm" of realization. "Pretty similar to mine, I think. Like father, like son, right?"

"I guess…" Clarisse said, then looked back at the rest of the demigods and smirked at them. They shared a knowing look that Dante had no context for, then they turned their attention back to him.

"Anyways," Dante said, drawing Rebellion and holding it as if he was displaying it. "Don't know what all of the decorations on if are all about, but I do know that it's special. It's got that… that shine, like when you pick up something that looks old and you know it's still perfectly good. I'm not good at explaining these things, but that's all I can say."

Clarisse seemed to accept his answer, nodding her head and falling silent. Which was just as good, because as the doorway to the stairs came into sight, he noticed a familiar white set of gashes (it wasn't actually gashes, it was a series of runes written in demon tongue overlapping one another but taking up less than a millionth of a centimeter of space, but they looked like gashes) floating in front of the door. "Aww, damn it." Dante sighed, shaking his head as he saw it. "Looks like we're going to have to take the long way up…"

"Why?" Thalia asked, passing him and approaching the door. "It's just a seal. I don't think Hazel will have too bad of a time getting rid of it."

"Thalia, I wouldn't get any closer if I were you." Hazel spoke up, stepping forward a small bit. "That seal has some kind of self-defense proximity trigger, I think."

Thalia stopped, then turned back to look at Hazel. Clarisse turned to Hazel as well, giving her a half-glare, half-questioning look. "What is the seal going to do, explode?" She asked in an arrogant tone. "It's guarding a door to a stairway that leads to the top of a parking deck, for Olympus's sake! How bad could it be?"

Dante didn't speak up, but he flicked his hand forward, then rolled his wrist so that his palm was facing the door, a Red Orb suddenly in his hand. He then dropped the orb, kicking it back into the air with his foot just before it hit the ground. He kicked it over his head, then kicked it back with the heel of his other foot, then bounced it off of his knee, then his shoulder, then his elbow, all the while slowly gaining confused looks from all of the assembled demigods.

After a minute of kicking the orb around like a hacky sack, he kicked it high into the air, then flipped up after it, performing a spinning axe kick that launched the orb directly at the door. Dante landed on his feet, dusting off his hands and grinning. "Heh, still got it." He said to himself as the orb came within six inches of the seal. It would have gone further, if what happened next didn't pulverize what momentum it had.

A glowing white hand the size of a minivan extended from the seal, scooping up the red orb and crushing it into powder. It then opened up flat, dropping the powder onto the ground before pulverizing it with a slap that left a five foot crater behind. The hand then retracted, the seal's glow dimming ever so slightly as it did. The hand took with it all of the ambient noise, leaving a deafening silence in the air around them.

Thalia took several steps away from the seal, drawing her bow and nocking an arrow. "Okay, note to self: don't get within grabbing range of the glowing seal." Thalia said, preparing herself to shoot it if it tried to grab at anything again.

"Side note to your note to self: If it involves demons, don't get close to it, no matter how bright it glows or how shiny it is." Dante added, then turned to walk up the ramp connecting the first and second floors. "Also, no matter how fun it looks to use, don't ever use a weapon that isn't explicitly gifted to you by a demon. They'll try to kill you more often than not."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Piper shouted after him. "And why aren't you helping us get through this?! You're the demon hunter here!"

Again, Dante felt something try to flow around his brain, but just as quickly as before, it was dispelled. "Ain't no getting rid of that without some serious spellpower, which neither you nor I have." He called back over his shoulder. "Our best bet is to find some kind of counter charge and bring it back." He then stopped, rubbing his hand against his chin in mock thought. "You know, now that I think about it, godly blood might just counteract the negative magics at work..."

"Counter charge it is." Percy decided rather abruptly, cutting Dante off from any more suggestions. The demon hunter laughed, his grin back in full force as the rest of the demigods caught up to him.

"Do you have to joke about everything?" Nico growled. Dante merely looked over at the boy and smirked, giving him more of an answer by doing that alone than any words he could have said. Nico's scowl worsened, and he fell back in the marching order until he was in the back.

Which was a good thing, as he was the one to see and realize what was happening immediately before it did happen.

Something began to glow on the back of the demon hunter's neck, and before it could be pointed out to him, Dante cursed and clutched the back of his neck, trying to grab at something on his neck. He didn't manage to grab it before he was roughly pulled backwards, as if someone had wrapped a noose around his neck and yanked. The glow around his body, which had faded into an imperceptible dimness, came back bright and burning, and his eyes began to lose their blue hue, instead becoming flecked with red. However, the most important thing was not how the pull had changed him, but what he had left behind.

Dante's shadow remained behind, moving without its owner for a moment before beginning to elongate up the ramp. It became darker, stretched to about ten feet long, and began to twist and contort into a shape that only resembled a human in general shape. As its contorting stopped, a pair of red eyes opened on its "face", and only then did it become corporeal.

Stepping out of the shadow was a demonic figure, standing about six and a half feet tall and flowing with shadowy energy. It's form was the darkest black the human eye could comprehend, but even still, they could see the spikes and chitin-esque plates that covered its body. A pair of large wing were wrapped around it's body in an organic and almost mocking way that make it look like Dante's coat, a tail with a long, spearlike tip extending from underneath and curling around its legs, and a pair of horns curved out from behind the ridges surrounding its eyes. A burning orange slit opened up where its mouth should be, and the edges pulled back in a sneer full of wicked sharp shadowy teeth.

"Oh fantastic," Dante wheezed sarcastically, using Rebellion as a support as he regained his balance. "Was wondering when you'd decide that my shadow wasn't enough for you, Doppie. Now, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like my shadow back-"

The demonic figure growled, charging shadowy energy around its fists and slamming them against the ground. A wave of darkness exploded outwards, throwing all of them off fo their feet and shattering the lightbulbs of all of the headlights, light poles, and lampposts within immediate line of sight. A raspy hiss sounded as the glowing facial features of the demon blurred, then vanished from line of sight as it flew straight upwards and through the concrete ceiling.

"Oouuugh… My head…" Percy groaned, rubbing the spot where his head hit the concrete and wincing.

Clarisse recovered quickly, vaulting to her feet with little effort and grabbing her spear. "Alright team! Sitrep!" she shouted, slinging both her spear and shield back onto her back.

"I'm good!" Percy replied immediately, climbing to his feet. "A little banged up, but nothing I can't handle!"

"'M fine!" Nico shouted roughly from somewhere in the dark.

"All good!" Hazel shouted, drawing her sword as she stood up and preparing for an ambush.

"Little roughed up, but don't worry about me!" Thalia shouted, her silver clothes reflecting the dim moonlight somehow.

"I'm all good!" Piper shouted, getting to her feet with a stumble as she almost lost her balance. "Okay, maybe I'm a little dizzy."

"I'm really pissed, but alright other than that!" Dante shouted, the red aura making his scowl very visible.

"Alright! Now, who's got the lights?" Clarisse asked, squinting in the darkness to see her teammates. "And get to where I can see you, Nico!"

As Nico stepped out of the shadows, Piper and Thalia retrieved a set of clip-on flashlights from their satchels, passing them out amongst the demigods. "Sorry, Dante." Piper apologized. "We didn't expect you being here, and so we didn't bring any spares. Do you think you'll be able to see alright without one?"

"I'll be fine." The man in the red coat huffed, crossing his arms and looking back up to the spot where the shadow demon had just been standing. "I'm better at seeing in low light than most. You'd be surprised how many demons like their mood lighting."

"Alright…" Piper replied cautiously, stepping away from him without knowing why. Luckly, before he could ask, Thalia stepped up to him with her bow drawn, an arrow laced between the fingers of her shooting hand.

"You seem familiar with tall, dark, and brooding, so is there anything we need to know about it before we head in?" the hunter asked, looking up at him with her fierce blue eyes.

"Hey, don't talk about Nico like that!" Dante replied, earning a glare from the black-clothed kid and a small chuckle from Clarisse and Percy.

Thalia frowned at him, crossing her arms across her chest. "You know what I mean, asshole." she snapped out, causing Dante's smirk to grow even wider. Regardless, he relented, sheathing Rebellion on his back and sighing.

"First off, yes, I am familiar with him, but no, neither of us really care for each other. Second, he wasn't hitchhiking, he was a part of my shadow because he gave his power over to me after I beat him in a fair fight. Third, I don't really think you can really _kill_ him forever, but if there's one thing that can weaken him significantly, it's magical light."

"His weakness is light?" Percy said, smirking and placing his hands on his hips. "Jeez, no wonder he's so dark and gloomy."

"Not just any light," Dante rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "Last time I fought him, we were in an arena with powerful magic lenses spaced apart on the walls. I'd basically have to drag him into the light every time I wanted to hit him, which was an issue because of-" he gestured to the shattered light bulbs in the area around them, "-well, you saw what he did. In the dark, though, he's basically unstoppable. Covers himself in a black armor of shadows, hits like a freight train, regenerates from most wounds, you get the idea."

"Wait, he gave you his power?" Piper piped up (no pun intended). "Why don't you just use it to call him and your shadow back?"

"Not how it works, kid. Without my shadow, I have no control over him. Likewise, he can't control me, but that's not how our relationship worked before."

"Huh…" Piper trailed off, tapping her chin in thought. "Does he have a name? Or do some demons just get by without them?"

Dante chuckled, smirking at her in an odd way. "Every demon has a name, Piper," he said, looking back over his shoulder before turning back. "His name is Doppelganger. Doppelganger the Deathvoid."

* * *

She was absolutely fuming.

Her powers had _never_ failed her before, and certainly not as horribly as they had just now. She was certain she had used precisely enough energy in the tether to sever Dante's soul from his body, and yet he was very clearly still alive. And now, to add fuel to the fire, there was now a third party involved with Dante and the Olympian-blooded, one which she knew would never see reason after all of the imprisonment he had endured.

The skin on her 'face' had begun to crack and tear at the edges, deep scarlet light shining out from within, which only proved to show just how furious she was. Her six hands, calm and precise before, were now quivering and balling into right fists as she reeled from her plan coming apart in front of her. Several Sins and Deaths of both varieties hovered around her, though they kept a respectable distance from their mistress out of fear for their lives. After all, if there was one thing demon feared, it was an even stronger demon's wrath.

" _ **YOU."**_ She roared, pointing at one of the Death Scissors nearby with a clawed finger. The demon floated closer, albeit slightly hesitant to do so. She turned, staring without sight down at it as she continued. " _ **See to it that the rest of our forces make it their top priority to stall the seed of Sparda and his allies, and inform them of what has passed."**_ Her orders were clear, and once she was finished, the demon nodded and vanished as it floated through the floor.

" _ **The rest of you, keep your senses sharpened."**_ She hissed. " _ **The Deathvoid is a considerable threat to the safety of our forces. Attack on sight, but do not be reckless."**_

As the rest of the assembled demons returned to their stations, the demoness sighed and floated higher into the air. She needed a moment before she created a new plan to act upon, but unfortunately for herself, moments for decisions were in short supply. She was treading (metaphorically, of course) on a fine line between disaster and order, and she wanted nothing more than several hours to plan and reorient herself before dealing with this again.

For the time being, though, she would fulfill the cripple's request.

Her hands stopped shaking as they came closer to her face, and soon enough, her face was covered completely by them. She focused, and soon enough, a silver light began to shine from between the cracks in her fingers. It shined for several seconds, and then abruptly died away as her hands pulled away, revealing her face whole once more. She shook her head from side to side, and then flexed her fingers and gave a small smile. Her anger was gone, replaced by the calm she knew all too well.

" _ **This will not get the best of me."**_ Her voice rang out, filled with conviction. " _ **I am Atropos, Queen Of Souls, Overseer, and Keeper of the Pacts of all Devils. I am stronger than this. I WILL overcome this. And if I must spill the blood of my fellow devils to do so, then so be it."**_

Her fingers flexed once more, and silver threads began to coalesce around her arms, weaving themselves into complex shapes before solidifying into silver bracers. Her topmost hands balled into fists, and within their grasp formed a pair of massive black scythes which she slashed in a wide X-cut in front of her. The blindfold over her eyes discorporated, revealing three eye sockets with red dots glowing from within. Her clothes of shadow rustled from the sudden wind flowing through them, and as if confirming the formidable power she controlled, a blast of lighting streaked across the sky above, causing an immense boom of thunder.

* * *

Nico knew something was very clearly wrong with Dante.

For one thing, no normal human glowed like he did when they got injured, and no human could take a _van to the fucking ribs_ and just walk it off. For another, Dante was way more confident than anyone Nico had ever seen in the business of monster- sorry, _demon_ \- hunting, demigod, mortal, or otherwise. He moved with an aura of power and confidence, and yet he didn't seem super powerful, so he couldn't be a god of any kind.

However, being a Son of Hades, he could sense the aura of life that wafted off of Dante. And not only could he sense his aura and those of his friends, but also of several strangely _other_ auras coming off of Dante.

Rebellion, the sword on the demon hunter's back, felt exactly what his own aura felt like after eating one of the seeds of Persephone: dormant, still, but still in there somewhere. Nico could see the faint shape of the gauntlets and boots Dante had used, outlined by ash which just seemed to hang almost invisibly in the air by them. The aura of those was like one of a soul trapped and struggling, not within its own body but in another form. Nico could see a third aura around Dante's legs and by his hands, looking like a heat wave rising up from the pavement. This aura was alive, but almost artificially, like it was a soul that had been _made_ for a purpose rather than born into a body. There were several more, but Nico couldn't make out much more than the fact that they were there.

It had taken a lot of his willpower to not say anything to anyone else, as this was a little bit scary for him. Did Dante steal the souls of whoever these used to be and put them in these weapons? Were the weapons truly the souls of whatever these were? And why did Dante seem so casual about this?

Nico's thought process was interrupted as he felt something dart by his back, stirring his belt and coat in the process. He looked back, but saw nothing there. Putting a hand to his belt to make sure his sword was there, he turned back to the group to see a black blur race past Hazel, which caused the girl to swat at it and draw her sword.

"Nico, was that you?" She asked, causing everyone to stop and turn around.

Nico raised his hands in surrender, shaking his head gently. "Some black shape just ran by." He informed her. "I felt it too. Couldn't make out anything about it either."

At that exact moment, a black shape rocketed out of the darkness, rushing by Dante and grabbing at something behind his back. The action caused Dante to whirl around, firing two shots with Ivory before drawing his other gun. "Hey!" He shouted as the blur dodged both shots and vanished back into the shadows.

"Was that it?" Hazel asked Nico, who only nodded in response.

"Oh, what the hell did he take?" Dante asked himself, holstering his guns and patting at his ass and sides.

"What did who take?" Piper asked, turning back to Dante. "Was that Doppelganger?"

"Yep." Dante sighed, continuing to pat at parts of his coat and belt as if he was trying to find something. "He's picked up a few new tricks since I last checked in on him, it seems." His hands came away from his back, drawing his guns from their holsters. "Don't know what he took, but he took something of mine, and I intend to get it back."

"We don't even know where he went." Thalia replied. "How do you plan on finding him?"

"Not sure yet." Dante replied, lazily spinning his twin pistols on his fingers. "I'm planning on walking around here for a little while and waiting for him to get bored and come find me. And then-" Dante flicked the safeties on the guns on and off a couple times, "-well, I think you get the idea."

"Slow down, Dante." Piper said, and Nico could feel the Charmspeak in her voice as it hit his ears. "We need a plan first. You may have the advantage when it comes to experience, but without a plan, there's no way we can coordinate our efforts together-"

"Okay, cut that out." Dante interrupted her, shaking his head and aiming Ebony at her. "Whatever it is you're doing, you're doing it intentionally, and it's kinda pissing me off. Now, I'm not mad enough to kill you right now, but I really wouldn't push it."

Piper's face went pale as the gun was leveled at her, backing up several steps as everyone but her and Nico drew their weapons. "Whoa, buddy, slow down there." Clarisse said, raising her shield and interposing herself between Piper and Dante. "No need for guns and infighting right now. We have bigger problems, and throwing threats around isn't helping. Put the guns away, and we can forget this all happened."

"Tell her to stop whatever she's doing, and I'll put the guys away, okay?" Dante said, gesturing to Piper with the barrel of Ebony.

"Hey, guys?" Nico said, looking around as several auras suddenly became known to him within their general area.

"Listen," Piper said, raising her hands and cowering slightly behind Clarisse. "I didn't mean to hurt you, I was just-"

"I, frankly, don't give a damn." Dante cut her off, rolling his neck as he did. "I just want you to cut it out. It's kinda getting on my nerves, if you couldn't tell."

"Guys!" Nico shouted, moving between Dante and Clarisse and effectively cutting off what may have been said next. "We need to keep moving. We're attracting attention by just standing here, and being as loud as possible is probably getting more than we can handle to come after us."

"Nico, we can deal with them when they show up." Dante said, pushing him out of the way. "Right now, though, I'm really starting to doubt your trust in me."

"Dante, you aren't listening!" Nico shouted, grabbing his wrist and attempting to wrench Ebony away from Clarisse and Piper. "Demons are _everywhere_ in here, and we've already kicked the wasp's nest! They know we're here, and it's only a matter of time before-"

"-they show up, I hear you." Dante pulled in the opposite direction Nico was pulling, pulling him off of his feet and causing the boy to collapse. "Now, let's wrap this up fast, or there's gonna be some consequences."

Nico felt the freezing chain wrap around his wrist before he saw it.

He was sharply dragged several meters away from the rest of the group, a move which gave him some nasty scratches from the asphalt cutting and pulling against his skin. Not even a second after he was clear, several shadowy cloaked figures erupted from the shadows around them, lunging at Dante with scythes and scissors drawn. The Devil hunter realized what was happening too late, only managing to summon a thin red shield with both hands which blocked only a few of the blades coming his way before it shattered. Blood sprayed from his body as each and every weapon aimed at him found its mark in his chest, neck, back, legs, and sides, and the resulting disruption of muscle control caused him to drop Ebony and Ivory as the rest of the demigods leaped backwards and prepared to attack.

Nico's vision turned away from the grisly scene as he was grabbed by the collar and lifted into the air. As his eyes adjusted to the sudden lack of light where he was looking, he could hardly make out the form of a shadowy demon with its arm extending behind Nico to hold his coat up. Dark brown eyes met red slits as Nico recognized the figure he was looking at.

" **It has been a long time since I have seen a child of Hades."** The sound of Doppelganger's voice was enough to make Nico cringe in pain and force him to cover his ears. It was indescribably horrible to listen to, impossibly deep in pitch and seeming to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, and the sheer emptiness contained within made the demigod want to vomit.

"What… what do you want with me?" Nico forced out of his mouth before clamping his teeth together once more to keep himself from groaning in pain.

" **You will be my bait for your friends, and this,"** Doppelganger held up a tripartite metal nunchaku which was covered in a layer of frost, snow, and solid ice, " **will be my bait for Dante. I intend to take my revenge on the accursed son of Sparda while he is still within the area, and spilling the blood of a few demigods will be an added bonus."**

"You…" Nico growled, and then realization crossed his face. "Wait, son of _who_?!"

* * *

 **I intentionally held off on posting this yesterday, as I wanted to see what the VGA trailer had in store. And let me tell you, I am not disappointed. I hope to incorporate some of the elements from that into this story somehow, but that will have to wait until next chapter.**

 **A few things I should probably point out about this story, because I forgot to point them out in other chapters. First, I will be reusing some moves from previous weapons with a similar fighting style (the only one I've done so far has been Meteor on Balrog in the first chapter, using the eyes of the weapon), but these are not official and just my interpretation. Second, I may be bringing back stuff that Dante may or may not still have (see: Doppelganger, this chapter), and may be making changes. Third, some weapons may not return if there is something too much like them already (for instance, Ifrit, Beowulf, and Gilgamesh won't return because Dante already has Balrog in this story), and I'm sorry if that excludes some of your favorite weapons.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Treyalexander63917: I thought as much. I suspected he defeated Mundus in the Demon World using his father's power and then sealed him with Trish's power combined with his own. But I'm sure by the time he reached his Majin form, he hit the level of his father's power. I'm guessing, by this point, that his father's power would just be a huge boost to his own instead of a completely separate DT, but I have no honest clue yet.**

 **Guest: Aww, thanks! That's really good to hear!**

 **Mrcrazyman94: It's been a while since I read the HoO books, but I'm glad I'm doing alright. I just have a feeling I didn't do anyone enough justice in some bits, and it's good to hear that I got it right.**

 **Guest (don't know if you're the same as the other one): Ah, I must have seen something unofficial then. I know that Mundus was the unofficial King of the Demon World, but he was always referred to as the Prince of Darkness. Although, with what we've seen, I think there's either a battle for the throne or the old king is set to return in DMC 5.**

 **Guest (are all three of you the same?): Actually, Itsuno has said that Pandora was a "knockoff" Cavalier, so there's a fairly high chance that it won't show up again. But who knows? I do plan on adding it regardless.**

 **Kamencolin: You're right, but I'm glad you think I'm doing well.**

 **And our big bad's name has been revealed now. Trust me, she's going to start becoming a threat soon, but just not this chapter. As of right now, though, what do you think?**

 **Anyways, If you like this, why not show me some support? I'd love to hear feedback, as well as tips on how to write any of these characters, as I'm still kinda feeling unsure about my portrayal. Reviews are always appreciated, and if you really want to, you could tell me either what your favorite demon you'd like to see return would be or which elements of the trailers we've seen so far you would like to show up here.**

 **That Random Demon, signing off!**


	4. Mission 04: In The Blood

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to either Devil May Cry, the Percy Jackson series, or the Heroes of Olympus books. These belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

For any other person, the wounds Dante just received would have spelled certain death for them. For him, however, they were just _really_ painful.

One might think that being a half-devil that had experienced all that he had would have some kind of pain tolerance against being stabbed or shot. In truth, however, he felt most pain as a human would, just to a lesser degree. But this was more than he could normally handle. Every blade felt like a hot nail being jammed into his body and being repeatedly hammered on by Nobodies. And yet somehow, despite all of this, he was alive and conscious.

And if there was one thing to know about Dante, it was that his strength only grew with the pain inflicted upon him.

"You know," he said somehow, taking a moment to spit out a little bit of blood. "This is giving me some serious deja vu."

And with that said, he let the power within him begin to flow.

Almost immediately, he was overwhelmed with the power released, and he concentrated on keeping his demonic instincts under his control. As a result, the burst of power that unleashed from him was huge, but gone in an instant. His body burned with red light, so much of it that no one observing could see his features, only his form as a figure of crimson light. A shockwave erupted from him, blasting everything around him back as spectral bands of symbols and runes materialized around his body, then shattered. As the light faded and the sparks and dust began to settle, all eyes focused on the spot Dante was at before the explosion.

There was a flash of red light and a sudden chill as all of the ambient heat left the air before Dante stepped out of the dust, the brightest aura of crimson surrounding his body and red sparks of electricity zapping between different parts of his body. In his right hand, he clutched Rebellion, which was charged with an equally bright light around its blade. In his left, he held the handle of what appeared to be a stone briefcase with glowing grooves carved around the demonic shape embedded in the front. Wounds knitted themselves closed as he planted the briefcase on the ground, any shards of metal still remaining in his body simply falling out of the wounds as they sealed up.

"There we go!" Dante said, rolling his shoulders and looking down at himself. "Ah, dammit! I just bought this! Can't you have any respect for a man's clothes?" He gripped at the hem of the coat, revealing several new cuts and punctures in the red leather. "God, and now I'm going to have to pay another insane price for a new one!" After he finished that sentence, he kicked the symbol in the center of the briefcase, causing it to unfold and begin to transform.

Rebellion flashed once as he swung it forward, a shout of "Drive!" accompanying it. The red energy pulsed, and a red energy slash erupted from the blade, travelling perpendicular to the floor as it raced towards a cluster of Sins. The slash was accompanied by two thinner, darker red slashes that collided and became an X-slash moments later, and all three impacted with the cluster and slashed straight through it. Several sins fell, their masks split in two or three pieces, but some of them managed to dodge out of the way. The survivors raised their weapons, letting out a shrill screech and launching into the air.

As the Deaths and Sins began to fly around once more in a loose circle, Dante stepped backwards, snagging what used to be the briefcase off of the ground, the odd shape-changing artifact now resembling a gatling gun. Dante slung Rebellion onto his back, gripping the two handles with his hands and letting loose a spray of bullets which took down more than a few of the spectral demons, which had their focus completely on him now. After about 30 seconds of fire, Dante let go of the top handle and slammed the gatling gun's barrels against the ground. The artifact changed once again, collapsing in on itself and then expanding back out into a massive three-barreled rocket launcher which he raised onto his shoulder. The front rotated once, then fired three rockets in swirling patterns which exploded at different points in front of him.

He shifted to his left, jumping into the air as he felt movement at his back. He kicked down again, kicking off of the head of a Death Scythe which had tried to sneak up on him. The artifact (named Pandora, it had told him once) changed shape once more, into what looked like a cross between a jukebox and a gravestone which was decorated with golden spikes and black nozzles by the base and across the top. Dante hurled it back to the ground, crushing the Death Scythe beneath its weight as it expanded to its full height of about five and a half feet. Dante landed next to it, and a panel on its side opened, revealing a list of songs with some odd names. Dante scanned it, then pressed a button at random with an exclamation of "LETS ROCK!"

 _{Devil Trigger - Casey Edwards}_

As the song started up, the panel flipped around again, revealing the demonic thing that had been embedded into the front of the box. Speakers emerged from its insides, and sparks began to spray from the black nozzles on top of the jukebox. Dante leaped a good twenty feet away from it, extending his hands and conjuring Cavalier into existence underneath him as he landed. He looked over to the frozen demigods, who all had looks of utter confusion and awe on their faces, and smirked, shouting, "Come on, you guys! Wouldn't want to miss out on all the fun, now would you?!"

He gunned the engine on Cavalier, riding over to the demigods as the music began to kick up. "I think I got room for one more back here, and the rest of you will have to stand. Who's it gonna be?" he asked over the roar of the engines and the demons flying around and overhead.

It took each of them a moment to process what he had just said. As they did, each of them looked at one of their allies, then at Dante, the look of confusion and worry never coming off of their face. Dante's fingers drummed against the handlebars a couple of times before Clarisse stepped forward, the daughter of Ares giving a shrug with a look of "sure, why not" on her face as she hopped on the bike behind him.

"Alright! Let's get this party started!" Dante said, gunning the engine once more and rocketing off towards a nearby Sin Scissors as the other demigods began to regain their composure behind him. "Hey," he called back to Clarisse, "The ride may be a little bumpy, so if you ever feel the bike leave the ground, don't let go of it. Wouldn't want to paint your armor red on the inside, too."

Clarisse's only response was to grin grimly and nod.

Dante laughed, kicking off the seat of the bike while maintaining a firm grip on the handlebars, swinging the bike in an overhead arc and slamming it's back wheel into the face of the Sin Scissors. Clarisse gripped the seat tightly, riding out the sudden shift in momentum as the demonic motorbike slammed into the spectral, masked demon and knocked it into the ground, where Dante mounted the bike once more and drove both wheels over its head. As it rattled out its death throes, Clarisse drew her magic spear and held it out like a lance to stab at any demon in front of and behind them that wasn't crushed under the wheels.

PF 616: Discordance, as the vocals changed from a man's voice to a woman's, spun on its base, blasting long streams of fire out of the nozzles along the ground. The nozzles on top of the jukebox stopped spraying sparks and instead began to fire short range rockets, which exploded in colored blasts of fire similar to fireworks. The demonic shape on the front (which resembled the skull of a snake without a jaw connected to the body of an eel coiled up within) opened its eyes, revealing blue dots of light that pulsed with the beat of the music. The volume began to ramp up without any input, making sure that everyone could hear the music pick up.

As Dante and Clarisse sped around the area, spearing and crushing demons, Hazel clapped her hands together and tapped into the Mist. "On my mark, split up and don't stop moving." She informed the rest of the demigods. "I'm manipulating the Mist around us so that none of us are clearly visible, but it only is going to work if you keep on moving." With that, she flexed her fingers and clapped again, and suddenly, each of the remaining demigods became hazy-looking and indistinct, looking as if three or four unclear figures were standing around the spot they just were at.

Each of them split off, the figures that replaced where Percy was just standing charging head on into the fray, the ones that replaced Thalia beginning to run around the edge of the loose circle formed around Pandora, and the ones replacing Piper and Hazel becoming lost in the chaos that was centered around Dante, Clarisse, and PF 616: Discordance. Percy's figures leaped high into the air, grabbing a Death by the face and plunging their weapons into its face. It screamed in rage and pain as a long crack appeared right between its eyes, then abruptly was cut off as its skull was split down the middle by a suddenly visible Celestial Bronze blade. The figures flipped off of it as it fell to the ground lifelessly, hitting the ground with a roll and charging up to the next demon.

"Our stop, kid!" Dante shouted, grabbing Clarisse by the breastplate and throwing her straight upwards. He pulled the handlebars back on the bike, sliding them all the way back to the gas tank and splitting the bike into two huge saws. Clarisse recovered quickly after landing, jumping up onto one of Cavalier's saws as Dante swung them into the head of a Death Scissors and spearing a Sin Scythe behind it with her spear. She balanced on the top of one saw as he swung it over his head, then leaped to the other and parried a thrown scythe coming for Dante's back. Dante didn't seem to mind the added weight, using the saws as he normally would (if one could call the way he fought "normal").

A volley of silver arrows began to rain from the Thalia doubles as they all began to draw and fire arrows with the speed of a gatling gun and the precision of an expert hunter. Several demons fell to the ground, clutching their masks and faces as arrows had punctured straight through the bone and smooth metal. Occasionally, they would dart into the horde to pull arrows from dead demons, risking a swipe from a scythe or having to duck around PF 616's flames in order to restock. Usually, the offending demon would be quickly dispatched by the hunting knives Thalia had been seen carrying before, but she did receive a rather large cut along one side as one of them got lucky, the injury reflecting across her body doubles.

PF 616 reached an apex of volume, practically blasting the song as rockets and fire shot out from it before suddenly, as the music died to a quiet, seven note beat that sounded like the singer was singing them, all of its assaults died away. Then, the chorus started, and the lyrics blasted out through the secrets, accompanied by blasts of fire, rockets, and bullets from concealed guns in the machine to replicate the actual instruments in the song:

 _[ALL THESE THOUGHTS RUNNING THROUGH MY HEAD!]_

 _[I'M ON FIRE! VEINS BURNING RE-ED!]_

 _[FRUST-RA-TION IS GETTING BIGGER!_

 _[BANG! BANG! BANG!]_

 _[PULL MY DEVIL TRIGGER!]_

Spent shells sprayed out of the sides of the machine like steam out of a grease fryer as the beat and tempo of the song increased, and the explosions threatened to shake the building they were in with their intensity. Dante laughed, beginning to sing along with the song as it's hook came up some time later. He knew the song well, as it was often playing in the Devil May Cry van when he was forced to ride with Nero on jobs, and he didn't want to keep the kid from his music.

Every so often, part of the concrete walls would come away and slam into a demon before returning to their rightful place, as Hazel's magic began to work. Powerful charmspeak began to sound past the loud music, loud enough for the demons with exceptional hearing to hear but not loud enough to affect the demigods. Occasionally, the blurry shapes of Hazel or Piper would leap out of seemingly nowhere to strike at the back of a demon as it turned to strike at one of the other opponents it had.

Soon enough, everyone had begun to at least hum the tune of the song as PF 616 blasted it through sound and shot. Dante's strikes became rhythmic and began to follow the beat of the music, mixing up his strikes with Cavalier, Rebellion, and Balrog to keep the beat going. Clarisse used Dante's wild fighting style as a conduit for her own, using Cavalier as a platform when he swung it, protecting his back with shield and spear when he drew Rebellion, and staying out of his way when Balrog exploded into existence. Percy and Thalia continued what they had been doing, but Percy's strikes had begun to slow as exhaustion began to weigh down on him and Thalia had to resort to her knives more often as her quiver began to run dry. Hazel and Piper showed up more often to counteract this, and their efforts began to counteract the slack their teammates had left behind.

"Alright everybody! All together now!" Dante shouted as the chorus once again began to draw near, reaching behind him to grab something and then hissing out a curse as he must have realized he didn't have whatever it was. The rest of the demigods split off from what they were doing, ducking in to run to where he was. "Three! Two! One! Come on!"

They charged forwards, Dante holding Cavalier's saws in a reverse grip and propelling himself to the front of the charge. Demons roared and charged back, while others turned to run, but all were beaten down and slain by the overwhelming force Dante and the demigods exerted in their fight. All the while, they practically screamed out the chorus, as they'd heard it twice before:

" _ALL THESE THOUGHTS RUNNING THROUGH MY HEAD!_

 _BLINDING MY SIGHT IN A CURTAIN OF RED!_

 _FRUS-TRA-TION IS GETTING BIGGER!_

 _BANG! BANG! BANG!_

 _PULL MY DEVIL TRIGGER!"_

* * *

"What the actual hell is going on down there?" Nico grumbled, covering his ears to block out what of the chaotic sound of music and gunfire beneath them.

" **Your 'friends' are submitting to the madness that Dante exudes in every action he takes."** Doppelganger replied, shifting the boy on his shoulder. " **Soon enough, they may be going out on jobs with him and eating pizza, sundaes, and everything else that would make a sensical person throw up. Now, no more questions. This chaos is already irritating enough to listen to."**

Nico closed his mouth, turning his head back towards the ground and closing his eyes. Honestly, being ransom wasn't as bad as he had expected. Doppelganger was alright with conversation, but he had no intention of truly harming the boy before it was necessary. He thought himself more honorable than most demons, but overall, they didn't converse more than necessary, and that was alright with Nico.

He just wished that he didn't need to be tied up with the frost nunchaku and thrown over the demon's shoulder.

The two walked in complete silence for a little ways longer, before stopping at a seemingly random point on a level of the parking deck two levels above where Nico was captured. There, the Son of Hades was dropped rather roughly in the bed of a silver pickup truck as Doppelganger began to shatter each of the overhead lights one by one. Looking around, Nico saw that the area was rather deserted of cars and relatively dark, perfect for a fight against a shadow demon.

"What now?" Nico sighed, looking over to Doppelganger, who sighed a sigh that sounded like someone turning off a chainsaw in a massive cavern.

" **What does it matter to you?"** Doppelganger growled. " **Knowing my plans will not change the outcome, nor will it affect your situation whatsoever. Besides, you should be used to the truth being hidden behind lies. Your gods do it as often as humans breathe."**

Nico glared at the demon, but shut his mouth regardless. " **Good. At least demigods know when to hold their tongue."** Doppelganger sneered, then turned and began to stalk off. " **Don't try to flee while I'm gone. It will only make your situation worse."** With that, the shadow demon vanished into a patch of darkness, leaving Nico alone with his thoughts.

It wasn't like he could have fled if he tried. His legs were bound tightly by the chains, as were his arms down to his elbows. Doppelganger had explained that he'd left the boy's hands free because the chains had no chance of breaking, no matter the strength the boy possessed. His sword was still on his belt, but the blade was pinned to his leg and would take a bit of maneuvering to pull free. So, that left him with nothing to do but sit and think.

And there was very obvious things to think about at that moment.

Doppelganger had called Dante the "Son of Sparda." Dante was the son of a millenia-old demon who single-handedly fought back and sealed the armies of the Demon World. That alone explained so much: The scars, the glowing when Dante got injured, him being able to shrug off the van that hit him before, and Rebellion, but it also raised many questions and even more problems. What could Dante do? What did his demon powers allow him? Was that why all of his weapons were alive?

Was Dante really as friendly and charming as he made himself seem?

Nico shuddered at that thought. Dante could just be luring each of his friends into a trap where he'd kill them and use their souls to open a portal to the Demon World. All of his weapons could contain the souls of his previous victims, and he just augmented his powers with those within the weapon to make himself stronger. His friends could be in grave danger, and they wouldn't even know.

But… Nico shook his head, dispelling that thought from the forefront of his mind. That didn't seem right to him. Why would Dante kill his own kind if he was just trying to kill the demigods? Wouldn't he just let the other demons kill them instead of mowing them down like a grain thresher? And how come Doppelganger knew about demigods and the Olympians, but Dante didn't seem to have much knowledge?

A loud boom of thunder from outside interrupted Nico's train of thought. As he looked around, he felt that same surge of power that he had when Dante had first shown up, one that came from far above him. He shivered, this time not from the ice-cold chains of the nunchaku nor from the rain that was starting up outside, but because of how exposed he felt. Any demon could just appear and attack and he wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. As he realized this, he gripped the hilt of his sword and tugged, trying to get it unsheathed so he could defend himself.

A strange, cold feeling met his back as he struggled with the sword, causing him to pause and look down. The feeling was all across his back, and as he watched, it travelled through his body before a dark, shadowy gas began to spill from a circular area of his torso. It pushed through, phasing through him like a ghost as a hat of shadows, then a ghastly, demonic face with a white beard, and finally a long, shadow-cloaked body floated incorporeally through his body. It was different than every other time a ghost had gone through his body, as it was very cold and vile whereas most ghosts would not give him more than a shudder and a feeling of cold and momentary dread in his chest.

The demon floating above him was a strange one indeed. It was shrouded by a cape of black, smoky material that glowed purple by the edges, donning a matching hat on its head. A white, ghastly face, ringed by a flowing white beard, grinned down at him, looking insectoid, reptilian, and humanoid at the same time. Beady red eyes peered out from below the brim of the hat, and a wide, needle-fanged smile split its face as pale arms tipped with long, red claws emerged from the folds of the cloak. At the bottom of the cloak, the sharp tip of a bone-white tail swayed from side to side, just barely visible to Nico.

As Nico's hand tugged at his sword, one of the red claws of the demon extended about nine feet as fast as a bullet, piercing through his wrist and the truck bed and striking the ground. It hissed, then let out a shrill cackle as it reached out and grazed a claw by Nico's chin. Nico gritted his teeth to prevent himself from screaming at the white-hot pain that seared the nerves around his wrist, but somehow, he fought through the stinging feeling and reached for the blade with his other hand.

The creature began to growl, frowning and retracting it's claw from Nico's wrist. It bared its fangs as Nico tugged at his sword, floating back before getting deadly close and slamming his shoulders against the bed of the truck. Nico scowled and hissed in pain, but nevertheless managed to tug his sword free of its sheath just as the demon pulled its claws back to stab Nico with. The Stygian Iron blade scratched across the frigid steel chain as he lunged to stab the demon, and what happened next surprised the both of them.

A howl of pain and rage, not unlike that of a wolf, echoed around them as the chains of the nunchaku sprung to life. One wrapped itself tightly around Nico's chest and neck, causing him to drop his sword and clutch at the frigid chain. Another launched at the cloaked demon, penetrating through the cloak of shadows and binding up its insectoid body so that it couldn't move. The third whipped around, striking several things as if someone was swinging at everything in a wrathful frenzy and crushing the windows and doors of several cars.

Nico, realizing his opportunity, grabbed his sword with one hand and stabbed down at the face of the demon. The blade sunk deep into the creature's flesh, causing it to writhe as it began to crumble into shadows. As its body disintegrated, the blade of his sword absorbed its essence as it would most monsters, but this time, however, the result was different.

Nico's blade began to glow a deep purple as the demon's body became only ash and smoke, seeming to agitate the darkness around it as it did. He momentarily stopped struggling against the chain, looking in awe and confusion as a single red line extended from the top of the guard right in the middle of the blade. It extended for about half of the blade's length before stopping, flashing once before the blade returned to normal, save for the new crimson streak down the middle (which, upon closer inspection, appeared to be the same color as those red crystals Dante had been picking up from slain demons).

His moment of awe was interrupted as a booming trio of voices echoed inside of his head, causing him to wince and grab at his head. ' _ **WHO DARES TO INJURE THE MIGHTY CERBERUS?'**_ it boomed, giving Nico a headache as they roared. ' _ **I WILL BURY YOU IN ICE SO THICK THAT IT WILL NOT MELT FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS!'**_

"OW!" Nico shouted as the chain tightened around his neck and chest. "I'm not trying to hurt you, I swear!"

Nico thought he heard another growl in his head, and then the voices paused. ' _ **You are not Dante.'**_ It said, and then the chains tightened around him to the point where Nico could feel the blood in his face stop circulating. ' _ **How did a filthy half-blood like yourself come into possession of me? Where is the son of Sparda?'**_ It roared as Nico tried to pull the chains off of his body.

"...Can...explain…" Nico wheezed out. "...Choking...need to…b-breathe…"

Just as the spots began to appear in his eyes and his vision began to fade, the chains slackened enough to allow him to breathe. ' _ **You have one chance. Do not waste it.'**_ The voices warned as Nico sucked in several shaky breaths. As soon as he was sure that he wasn't about to pass out, he began.

The voices, which Nico remembered had called themselves Cerberus, were silent for a few minutes after Nico finished. Then, all at once, the chains retracted, becoming the length they had been when he had first seen them. ' _ **This is… concerning.'**_ They said as Nico grabbed the ring that connected the three chains. ' _ **Take me and go forth. Find Dante, and return me to him, wherever he may be.'**_

"Fine, but first, you seem to know quite a bit about Dante." Nico said, hooking the nunchaku to his belt. "Why don't you answer a few of my questions while we walk?"

' _ **...I do not have a choice in this, do I?'**_ Cerberus questioned with a sigh.

"Not in the slightest." Nico replied rather bluntly.

* * *

"Mmm-MMMM!" Dante hummed as he devoured his third slice of pizza, topped with pepperoni and black olives. "'S not the best I've ever had, but it's pretty damn close."

His five allies nodded in agreement, all of them leaning against the back of the destroyed pizza delivery vehicle. Dante had (somehow) caught the scent of a pepperoni pizza after packing up his demon suitcase, and after finding the vehicle wrecked from bullets and explosions, he took a look around and then pulled out a pair of slightly-mashed pizza boxes after leaving enough money to cover both pizzas. He seemed a little pissed that both of them had olives, but he shrugged it off with only a little complaining.

"So, Piper," Dante said after he swallowed the back half of his slice. "About earlier-"

"I swear I won't do it again!" Piper shouted, almost dropping her slice as she stood up. "It was just a thing that comes out! Don't shoot me, please!"

Dante chuckled, grabbing another slice of pizza as he shook his head. "I'm not going to shoot you," He said, shaking his head, "if you don't do that again. It's _very_ irritating, a lot more than normal in the middle of a job, _especially_ when that job involves demon slaying. Understand?" Piper nodded, looking into the eyes of the demon hunter and seeing just a little bit of steely anger underneath all of the soft, velvety humor within them.

"So, I don't believe you've introduced us to the rest of your arsenal." Percy asked, shuffling a little closer to Dante and cocking his head over towards Pandora, which sat in its briefcase form over on the door of an overturned SUV. "Mind giving us a little bit of a tour of what you have up your sleeve?"

"Percy, I'd prefer if you didn't meet them." Dante said before taking a large bite of pizza. He paused his remark as he chewed, swallowing his bite before continuing. "Some of them can be rather… feisty, shall we say, when it comes to meeting new people."

"Sure they are." Clarisse butted in, crossing her arms after polishing off the slice she had been handed. "Come on, old man. Out with them. We want to see."

Dante sighed, then set his slice of pizza down and grabbed Pandora. "You really want to see?" He asked, met with noises of approval and excitement. "Well, then, let's start with the available." He lifted the briefcase so that the demigods could see it's front, rapping his knuckles against the front of the case. "This is Pandora," was all he could say before he was interrupted.

"Like, Pandora's Box-Pandora?" Hazel asked, frowning in uncertainty.

"Please, save all questions until the end of the presentation." Dante replied, mimicking the annoyed tone of a teacher who had been interrupted. "Now, she's a demon-made- uh, well, I'm not sure exactly what she is, but she can change into a lot of different forms, all of which produce a lot of destructive potential when used correctly." To demonstrate, he planted the briefcase against the ground, activating the briefcase and transforming it into a huge mobile missile battery with a seat in the center of the two perpendicular rings. Several gun barrels emerged from stone blocks on the horizontal ring, wide enough to launch a large RPG through it. The two golden rings intersected at one stone block immediately in front of the seat which Dante occupied, baring the shape that was on the front of the briefcase in a much larger form.

"Holy shit…" Thalia said, taking a step back along with the rest of the demigods as Dante grabbed the handle on the back of the machine and flipped the briefcase back into its original form. "That…" she didn't have any words to explain what was expressed across her face.

"Yeah, it's something alright." Dante said, then flipped Pandora onto his back, snapping his fingers and summoning the demonic motorcycle to his side. "Now, this is Cavalier, my electric motorbike/twin saws that I picked up recently." He gripped the handlebars and cranked the engine, causing the bike to purr loudly and spark with electricity. "I don't think I need to show any more about it, because I'm sure you get the idea."

He dispelled the bike, the electricity sparking against his hands turning to flames as his gauntlets materialized in ash. Shoulder guards and greaves materialized in the same ash, all of them bursting into flames as Dante slammed his fists together, then cracked his knuckles and shook himself. "And here," he said, gesturing down at himself, "is Balrog. It's a set of gauntlets and greaves imbued with the power of a fire demon, whose soul is sealed inside these." He turned his hands over, showing off the bright yellow eye-gems bolted into the backs of the gauntlets. "Kinda feisty, but he likes me well enough." As if to contradict the statement, the metal gauntlets and greaves burned brighter suddenly, causing Dante to hiss as if someone had just poked a patch of sunburnt skin.

"Likes you, huh?" Piper asked smugly as the demon hunter dispelled the fire gauntlets and greaves. Dante scowled at her, shaking his head, then reached down and grabbed the shotgun strapped to his leg.

"This is Coyote-A, and…" Dante trailed off with a chuckle, twirling it on his finger. "Well, it's saved my hide more than once."

"Is it some other kind of super-powerful demon gun?" Clarisse asked, raising an eyebrow as she shifted her helmet under her arm.

"Nah, it's just a gun, but I paid someone to customize it like crazy." Dante flipped the gun upwards, revealing the sling clip on the bottom. "For instance, the sling-clip here helps for reloading, the break action works faster, both barrels fire at once, you get the idea." Coyote-A was strapped back onto his leg, and then Dante reached up and drew his twin pistols from their holsters.

"And these guys… well, I never go anywhere without 'em." Dante sighed, looking at them for a moment almost like he was remembering better memories, then spun them on his fingers and flicked the slides with his thumbs. "Ebony and Ivory, made just for me by an old friend. M1911 handguns with so many modifications that I probably couldn't shoot a regular one without a bit of difficulty. They've been with me ever since I opened up my first shop in Capulet City, and have seen me through thick and thin."

"Must mean a lot to you, huh?" Percy asked, raising his eyebrows at how open Dante was being.

"You have no idea." That was all the old demon hunter said before he slid them back into their holsters. "Now, are any of you going to finish that pizza? I'm starving!" He clapped his hands together and licked his lips to emphasize his point.

The others stepped back with their slices in their hands as Dante rushed forward, finishing off his current slice before greedily consuming another. They watched as the devil hunter ate, and even though he had already had four or five slices, he seemed as hungry as could be as he finished off the remaining slices. Once he was done, he let out a contented sigh and wiped his mouth on his sleeve, then ran the two boxes off to the trash can.

As he came back, Hazel overcame her surprised silence, blurting out a question. "How can you even eat that much?!" She said before covering her mouth quickly, slightly embarrassed by the sudden outburst.

Dante laughed, shaking his head and looking at her. "Jeez, so many questions." he replied, shaking his head. "It's just to keep me awake and full-up. There's nothing worse than fighting demons on an empty stomach." He rolled his neck once, then turned and continued to walk up towards the third level. "Now, you coming or not?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the building shook as a loud thunderclap echoed above them. Dante's smile faded as he drew Rebellion and beckoned the demigods to follow him. "Move!" He shouted over his shoulder as he began to run up the incline.

The five demigods broke into a sprint, catching up to him quickly as he made it up to the third level. "It's just thunder!" Thalia shouted at him. "No need to run like hell over it!"

Whatever Dante would have said was cut off as a large shadow blotted out the streetlights coming from the side of the building in front of them. " _ **DEATHVOID!"**_ A thunderous, demonic voice shouted as a huge, bone-white arm with claws as long as swords smashed straight through the wall to their right, slashing and grabbing at whatever was inside. " _ **SHOW YOURSELF SO I MAY FLAY YOUR WORTHLESS HIDE FOR INTERFERING!"**_

Dante shoved Piper and Thalia out of the way as the arm came close, hacking at the fingers wildly with Rebellion as it tore concrete, asphalt, and metal alike to shreds. Whatever the arm was attached to roared, pulling its hand away from Dante and instead smashing a hole in the ceiling above them. "Scatter!" Dante shouted, cutting a large piece of debris that was falling towards them in half as the rest of the demigods scattered. The devil hunter slashed apart a few more pieces of incoming debris before leaping back himself, sheathing Rebellion on his back and turning back to the destroyed wall and ceiling.

Floating on the other side, shrouded in a cloak of shadows so thick that he couldn't see anything but its eyes and its protruding arms, was a massive, demonic figure. Bone-white hide covered each of its six frail arms, all of which ended in clawed yet humanoid hands. It seemed about thirty or forty feet from bottom to top, though the six had no idea if that really was the case, and its three, dark-green eyes stared down at them with nothing but contempt. In two of its hands, it clutched scythes as tall as telephone poles and with blades as wide as a pickup truck, but its four others were free, wrapped with intricate silver bracers and crackling with green energy.

"So, you must be the one I came here to bag." Dante called, chuckling and resting his hands on his hips. "I don't expect you're going to come quietly and willingly?"

The shadow growled, its arms retracting into the cloak as it lowered to their level. " _ **I do not have time for this."**_ it growled. " _ **I will deal with you later."**_ With that, it raced forward, flying through building, machine, and demi-human alike incorporeally as it flew out the other side. All six of them had to cover their faces and dig their feet in to keep from being blown over, but as the dust settled, several demonic roars from above them caused them to uncover their faces and look up.

Hell Cainas and Sins patrolled by the hundreds above them, though only a few had noticed their presence. Several other demons could also be seen, but they were farther back and couldn't have seen what had just happened. However, two electric streaks darted through the horde, bouncing off walls, cars, and ceilings before coming to a clear and visible stop on either side of the six.

Each was about nine feet tall on their hind legs, built like freight trains and covered in hard-plated grey scales. Three huge claws tipped their massive hands, which were covered in the same armor as their head, back, sides, and legs. If one looked closely, they could see the red, slightly softer flesh exposed on its stomach, impossible to reach as long as the excessive amount of lightning forming a barrier around their body remained. It had indentations in its facial armor where its eyes should be, but the black, beady eyes one might expect were still covered by its armor. The single, foot-long horn on its face looked equally as dangerous as its rows of sharp teeth, held within a mouth that appeared to have no lips. They stood still, as if sniffing the air, before zipping to three different points in a second and landing with a roar.

"Oh, great." Dante said sarcastically, drawing Coyote-A from its holster. "I was wondering when the Blitz's would show up."

* * *

 **I'm sorry, everyone. I meant to have this up by Tuesday, but due to a power outage at my house, my computer coming back from being fixed, and snow falling like crazy, I wasn't able to post this until today.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Mrcrazyman94: Oh huh. Well, I'm glad you enjoy it.**

 **Treyalexander63917: I did not remember that Piper did use it on her friends, I just thought it would be a little funny if using Charmspeak on Dante ended up backfiring. And that is my plan for Nico, as of this moment.**

 **Red Raven 007: Thanks for the criticism. I knew that Red Orbs didn't really exist, but after seeing gameplay from the Faust Hat (I'm not sure what the canon explanation is for that yet), I felt like I needed to include it further down the line. Also, I'm glad you pointed out the crazier style of fighting that Dante shows off in cutscenes, and while I've been trying to do that, Dante's style of crazy is harder to do for someone like me, who prefers practicality over stylishness.**

 **NovaStar66: As far as I know, Doppelganger's alternate title is Deathvoid (or at least, according to his boss-rush title in 3: Deathvoid Reborn). I think it's because there's an old saying that if you see your own double, your death is imminent. I'm not entirely sure though.**

 **Also, am I the only one that thinks that V could make for a good character for the Kanes to meet in a DMC x Kane Chronicles crossover? I'm not sure why, it just seems like he'd fit.**

 **Anyways, If you like this, why not show me some support? I'd love to hear feedback, as well as tips on how to write any of these characters, as I'm still kinda feeling unsure about my portrayal. Reviews are always appreciated, and if you really want to, you could tell me either what your favorite demon you'd like to see return would be.**

 **That Random Demon, signing off!**


	5. Mission 05: In Bitter Grief and Woe

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to either Devil May Cry, the Percy Jackson series, or the Heroes of Olympus books. These belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

Everything going to Hell in a handbasket was not one of the things Nico had expected out of tonight. Then again, talking with a sentient, tripartite frost nunchaku was not on that list either, but he supposed that one couldn't predict something like that happening on a 'normal' day for a demigod.

As he pulled himself up onto the shelf of concrete he had been standing on before it was smashed in half, Cerberus growled from its spot on his belt. ' _ **Keep vigilant.'**_ its three voices echoed in his head. ' _ **I sense powerful devils nearby, three or four in number.'**_

"Thanks for the tip." Nico said, drawing his sword as the building shook several times, presumably from whatever had just smashed through the floor and wall behind him bludgeoning into other areas of the parking deck. He took slow, cautious steps in order to maintain his balance as he moved onwards, towards the large and stable shelf of concrete up the ramp to his left.

As he walked, he remained on the lookout for life auras in places they shouldn't be. The feedback he received was overwhelming at times, as looking down would show so many different types of demonic auras that he would become disoriented once he looked away, but overall, there was no immediate threat in his area. Sure, the giant-sized shape that flew past his vision every so often would scare him shitless every time he saw it, but it never seemed to make an active attempt to harm him, so he left the thought of it in the back of his mind.

As he reached the crumbling end of the ramp ahead of him, he watched the other side closely as he took a few steps back. "I can't make that..." he muttered to himself, his shoulders sagging in despair as he realized he might have to brave the treacherous levels below him. Looking over the edge of the gap, he saw hundreds of Hell Caina, Sins, and other unknown demons below him, waiting for something to enter their midst so they could gleefully rip it to shreds.

' _ **I can help you.'**_ The voices of Cerberus echoed within his head, causing him to look down at his belt in surprise. ' _ **All you need to do is jump and swing me outwards. I will do the rest.'**_

"Are you crazy?!" Nico screamed at the demonic weapon, not caring in that moment how much attention he drew. "You want me to jump over a pit of demons and trust my life on the word of a sentient weapon I only met a few minutes ago?!"

' _ **Keep it down, Nico! They will hear you!'**_ Cerberus shouted in the demigod's head. ' _ **And you've trusted my word so far! Why would now be any different?'**_

"Because I wasn't putting my life in your nonexistent hands before!" Nico replied in a barely-restrained shout.

' _ **Nico, listen,'**_ Cerberus calmy spoke, and Nico felt the tension leave his body, replace by a cool and pleasant feeling of level-headedness. ' _ **If I believed you would die from this, I would have just as much reason to avoid this alternative. If you were to die, you would at least be granted Hades for your afterlife, but I would still be stuck in this Devil Arm until the world burns to ash. I would be trampled by every demon below you, cracked, broken to pieces but unable to die. So, you must trust me when I say this: I have no intention of letting you die.'**_

Nico took a moment to ponder over the 'Devil Arm's' words, putting a hand through his hair as he did. On the one hand, all of the points Cerberus had made held up. What was the purpose of killing one demigod if it meant being thrown under the feet of your own kin to be kicked around, without any way to fight back? On the other, Cerberus was a demon, and as far as he was taught, demons were never meant to be trusted, much less trusted with one's life. Besides, Nico didn't know what kind of demon Cerberus used to be. What evidence was there to say that the nunchaku wasn't lying about all of this?

"...I swear, if you get me killed, my dad's going to throw you so deep into Tartarus that not even Mundus will be able to find you." Nico growled, pulling Cerberus off of his belt regardless and taking a few more steps back.

' _ **I would expect no less from him.'**_ Cerberus joked, both humor and dread present in his tone.

Nico nodded, then rushed forward, taking a running start and jumping towards the other side at the last possible step. He jumped an impressive distance, but only cleared just under half of the gap at the apex of his jump. He raised Cerberus, swinging it over his head twice before gripping one of the chains and extending his arm forward as if he was throwing a lasso. The two free chains of Cerberus shot out, vanishing behind the cracked concrete edge as Nico fell towards the mass of demons below. Before Nico could panic about the demons below suddenly becoming aware of his presence, Cerberus pulled taut and yanked him upwards, away from the wave of slashes and projectiles that would have spelled his end had he fallen any farther.

Nico had the wind knocked out of him as he slammed into the concrete edge, flying over it and letting go of the ice nunchaku as he hit the concrete and began to roll. As he came to a stop, he clutched his ribs, certain he would have a nice, purple bruise in a few minutes. He felt like throwing up from the impact, but he held it in, closing his eyes and swallowing as he rolled onto his back.

An odd, half-cackle and half-roar sounded as Nico became aware of the fact that he wasn't alone. Heavy footsteps sounded in a very odd four-step pattern, making Nico aware of its disproportionately-sized limbs and its possibly unbalanced weight. Nico struggled to sit up, turning his head and blinking his eyes to refocus them on the very ugly-looking demon that was padding towards him.

Standing on it's back 'legs', this thing would have been about six meters tall, but as it was now, it was about ten feet tall. It resembled an insanely disfigured man, but instead of legs, it had another pair of grey-white arms protruding from its hips. Bits of its grey flesh had been torn off all over its body, revealing blood-red muscle underneath. A fifth, disproportionately large arm protruded from its back, almost completely stripped of its skin as it grabbed and snatched at nothing. Its face was akin to a human skull, but was all wrong in proportions, with a long and wide mouth and very small eye sockets. It moved in a very awkward manner, moving its limbs in irregular patterns and struggling to keep itself facing Nico. He might have laughed, had he been behind several feet of reinforced glass and with it locked in an impenetrable cell.

Right now, however, he was trying not to scream.

This thing stomped towards him as he scrambled to his feet, gnashing its teeth and letting out it's weird, croaky cackle once more. Nico reached for his sword, but the demon was faster, lunging forward and slamming him in the chest with its fifth hand, causing him to double over and stagger backwards. The creature wasted no time, leaping onto him and pinning him with all four of its hands. He looked up as it stretched its mouth open, no doubt trying to eat him, but he wasn't about to let it. He reached out, stretching his fingers to grab at one of the frosted grips of Cerberus, failing a few times before managing to catch it. He flicked his hand, and the demon inside the weapon responded, wrapping itself around the limb of the creature. It screeched in response, pulling itself off of Nico and recoiling as it rubbed its now frostbitten arm.

Nico leaped to his feet, spinning Cerberus between his hands as he had seen some martial arts experts do in movies before. "What the hell is this thing?" he wondered aloud, settling into a battle stance without realizing it.

' _ **These are scum, worthless demons made from vile slop dredged up from the depths of the Abyss.'**_ Cerberus replied with a snarl, venom practically dripping from the words and into Nico's brain. ' _ **They are so low in the rank and file that we have no name for them, and they serve no purpose but to be the front-line charge for when the forces of the Demon World spill into your own.'**_

"That's… a very strange way of saying that they're essentially nobodies within your hierarchy." Nico said, swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat.

' _ **Nobody? Is that your common word for "utterly worthless wretch who wouldn't even make a good meal"?'**_ Cerberus asked without a hint of sarcasm within his questioning. ' _ **Seems rather… lackluster, if I do say so.'**_

Nico would have replied, had the creature- the Nobody, he'd decided to call them- not pulled an eyeball the size of a bowling ball from within its own body and threw it in his direction. Nico's hands moved before the rest of his body could react, spinning Cerberus like a fan in front of him and smacking the eyeball off course. The projectile sailed into the side of a red SUV, where it promptly exploded and covered a good third of the car in horrible, fast-acting acid. Nico didn't have time to watch the car begin to dissolve, though, as the Nobody leaped towards him and attempted to grab him with the hand on its back once more.

' _ **On your guard, Nico.'**_ Cerberus snapped, as if he was Nico's drill instructor in the army. ' _ **If you continue to act like you've never fought in your life, you will get the both of us killed.'**_

"Thanks for the vote of confidence…" Nico growled, lunging forward and swinging the form of Cerberus to strike the Nobody. It, however, had very different plans in mind, as instead of taking the hit directly, it jumped about seven feet straight upwards, twisting its body to land two hard punches on his back as it landed behind him. It's strikes sent Nico tumbling forward into an impromptu roll, from which he recovered after fifteen feet of movement.

' _ **Nico!'**_ Cerberus was getting mad at the boy, evident by his tone and the growing frost on the nunchaku. ' _ **This is no time to be messing around!'**_

"I'm not messing around!" Nico growled, turning back to face the Nobody. "I have no idea what to do with you! I've never used a set of nunchucks before!"

' _ **Then do not think of using me like a weapon!'**_ Cerberus barked back. ' _ **Do not think at all, except to react or to strike! We will work better together if you just let your instincts take over!'**_

Nico's face hardened into a scowl, but nevertheless, he closed his eyes and began to focus. He let his mind clear, and his muscles relaxed slightly as he became aware of the chill that exuded from Cerberus. He took a deep breath, then opened his eyes, face set into a look of steely coldness that was not all that unlike his father's as he let out a battle cry and charged towards the Nobody.

* * *

Out of all of the weird shit he'd seen before, both tonight and across his whole life, Percy had compiled a list of things that no one would believe if he told them, not even the most experienced demigods. There were just some things, he'd come to understand, that people would just flat out refuse to believe unless they had been there to experience it.

As of this moment, Dante had just made this list four times tonight.

"Come on now!" The old demon hunter shouted as the electric demon who he was currently riding on like a horse at the rodeo thrashed, flailed, clawed, and kicked at its back where he was sitting. "Wooohoooo! Yeah! Giddyup, little horsie!" He was obviously having a wild time as the demon beneath him roared and tried to kill him, but even still, he wasn't having too much fun to avoid the stray claw swipes that came his way. Percy wasn't even sure that Dante had meant to jump onto its back after it attempted to spear him with the large horn it had, but once he did, he rode out the sudden confusion the demon had experienced as it awkwardly tried to dispose of its rider.

The son of Poseidon parried several incoming scythe swipes from a group of Hell Caina as his attention was dragged back to the fight at hand, riposting with a stab that cut the shoulder off of one and a slash that decapitated it and two more before Percy pulled his sword back to guard himself. Percy was forced to leap backwards as one demon decided to mix things up, aiming for his legs instead of his chest, which made it much harder to parry than the other swings. Percy landed and dashed to one side, slashing the leg off of one as he passed and met up with Thalia, who had just finished taking down the first of several rounds of what Dante had referred to as "Assaults".

"What's the matter, Percy?" the Hunter of Artemis asked as she shouldered her bow. "All this fighting too overwhelming for you?"

"Nah, just looking for a change of pace." Percy replied, looking over to the Assaults that were quickly taking the place of the dead ones. "Besides, don't joke about me getting overwhelmed when you've got it easy. I don't see you in there dodging claws and scythes like I was."

"Psh," Thalia waved him off, drawing her twin silver knives as she smirked in his direction. "I'm a Hunter of Artemis, Percy. I could win a fight like this with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back."

"Is that a challenge?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at her.

"I don't know. Do you accept?" Thalia retorted, which caused Percy to chuckle.

"Oh, you're on, Thalia." The son of Poseidon said before he turned and charged towards the second wave of incoming Assaults. Although he couldn't see her, he knew that Thalia was smiling wide as she picked up where he had left off with the Hell Caina.

A sound like the boom of thunder echoed from behind him as Dante flipped off of the demon and landed beside Percy, rolling his shoulders and neck even before his feet had fully touched the ground. "Have fun with your rodeo, old man?" Percy quipped, sidestepping a tail stab and grabbing the scaled tail as the Assault tried to recover.

"Meh, wasn't the best one I've ever been in, but it was fun while it lasted." Dante replied, drawing Ebony and Ivory and firing both ahead of him and to his left as he spoke. "I see you've got things under control over here?"

"I'll manage." Percy huffed as he slashed the tail clean off the Assault, causing it to scream and flee from him.

"Alright, suit yourself." Dante said, tossing both of his guns into the air and drawing Rebellion from his back, launching it towards one of the electric demons that was blitzing in his direction in a very straight, dagger-esque throw that speared the demon in the neck. The demon roared, zapping through the space between Dante and Percy as both of them leaned backwards, Dante catching his guns in his hands as he straightened up and Percy tried to take a slash at its armored hide. The boy was rewarded with a surge of electricity that was conducted by his sword, causing him to scream and drop the blade with a jolt.

Dante chuckled, flipping the sword up into his hand with the toe of his boots and handing it to Percy grip-first. "Careful." The devil hunter chuckled as Percy took his sword back with his off-hand, still shaking out his now soot-covered hand, which sported several new and nasty-looking burns all over its back.

"I'll be fine, Dante." Percy huffed, flexing the fingers of his hands a few times to make sure he wasn't in too much pain before taking hold of Riptide once more. "You've got bigger fish to fry at the moment, and we've taken enough of a break as it is."

A loud clang sounded as Clarisse was launched over the horde of Assaults that was scattering around them, her shield flying out of her grip as she impacted with the ground and a grunt escaped her mouth as burns similar to those Percy sported sizzled and hissed under her shield arm. The same demon that had just passed the two of them landed above her, Rebellion still embedded in its neck as electricity sparked across its body once more. The daughter of Ares growled, sending a hard punch into the face of the demon which only served to make it more angry as she tried to stand. The demon roared, slamming her to the ground with one claw and then raising it's other to smash her head flat against the pavement.

That's what would have happened, at least, if Rebellion didn't suddenly tear through its body like a buzz-saw through butter.

The steel claymore went from the neck of the demon to flying through its tail in under one second, and was spared from most of the spray of blood that followed as the demon's two pieces fell to either side. The lightning dissipated, and as Clarisse, who received a facefull of demon entrails from the exchange, shoved one side of the dead carcass off of her shoulder, everyone bore witness to Rebellion returning to the hand of its owner, who had holstered his guns and wasn't even looking in the direction of the demon as it died. Dante slowly raised the blade above his head, then flicked it downwards in a fast arc that left the blade at a 45-degree angle from his body, which created a gust of wind that caused the loose debris on the ground around him to fly away as his coat rustled in the breeze.

"So, who's next?" Dante questioned at all of the demonic beasts who's attention was settled on him, resting Rebellion on his shoulder and placing his other hand on his hip. "Come on, I'm warmed up and ready now, and I'd hate to have been riled up for nothing!" The demon hunter's eyes narrowed slightly in anticipation, scanning the demonic horde once more as they began to roar and charge once more. "Well, if you're ready, then let's dance, boys!" With that said, he lunged forward with the blade levelled to stab, leaping back into the fray after the moment of silence.

"Showoff." Percy sighed, shaking his head as he walked over to help Clarisse back to her feet. "You alright?"

"I've been through worse, Jackson." The daughter of Ares said, taking his hand and using him to pull herself up. "The thought is appreciated, though." she added over her shoulder as she grabbed her shield from the ground, looking around for her spear before cursing and drawing a sword from a sheath by her belt.

"You've- uh, you've got something on your armor," Percy said, noticing the bits of demon flesh covering her armor as she turned back to face him. "Something there-" he pointed to a large chunk of reddish meat hanging off of her shoulder guard, "-and something else here-" he pointed to another spot by her belt, "-and a little more-"

"Oh shut it, Jackson." Clarisse growled, using a hand to wipe off the bits of demon before taking hold of her sword once more. "You're not the one who was stuck under a bifurcated demon, so don't act so smug about it until you've been there."

"Okay, Clarisse." Percy looked over, seeing that the demons had gotten over their shock and apprehension and had begun to fight back against Dante. However, a good portion of the demons had begun to break away from the fight against Dante, seeking out the seemingly weaker targets instead of going against the overwhelming force that was Dante.

"You coming, Jackson, or are you just gonna stand there and look dumb?" Clarisse asked, nudging him with an elbow and turning her head to face him.

"As if I'd let you take all the credit for killing these guys." Percy grinned, getting a firm grip on Riptide before following Clarisse back into the fight.

* * *

Far from the parking deck where all hell had broken loose, there sat an abandoned apartment building, dilapidated and condemned by the officials of New York City. Boards of plywood covered several broken windows, and the doors were chained shut, blocking out any of the teens that decided to use this place to drink or smoke something without their parents' knowledge. However, that was not to say that the building was empty.

A figure sat on the edge of the roof, facing the roof access door with his eyes closed. Black bangs fell across his right eye, and despite the cold, he wore a sleeveless black leather coat with a leather vest underneath, as well as black pants and sandals. A black-leather glove with no fingers was fitted around his right hand, which gripped an old brown book with a golden embroidered "V" across the front cover, but his left wrist had a leather bracelet and a spiked wristlet wrapped around them instead of the glove's pair. A silver, elaborately decorated cane laid by the feet of the young man, but he paid it no mind as he silently mouthed phrases from his book, the tattoos that covered his arms rippling as he breathed out incomprehensible words.

As he finished, he snapped the book shut with a loud sound, the old tome disappearing inside his coat as he snatched his cane from the ground. Green eyes opened as two presences, both demonic in nature, moved swiftly in on him, though he showed no surprise or anticipation. He placed both hands on the top of his cane as a shadow parted from the rest and became three-dimensional, taking the shape of a wild cat as its solid red eyes became visible. Moments later, there was a rustle and the wind shifted as a huge blue bird flew past the figure, doing one loop in the air before perching itself on one of the powerless generators nearby.

"You rang?" the bird said in perfect English, shifting its wings slightly as it cocked its head toward the figure.

"Griffon, what is the situation with Atropos?" The figure replied, ignoring the bird's question. Griffon sighed as best as a bird can, then rolled his eyes and looked at the figure once more.

"Straight to the point, as always." The bird said. "But I'm glad I'm out of there. Things were getting a little out of hand when I left, and I don't think things are going to pan out in the way we want."

"Really?" The figure asked, intrigue trickling into his poetic voice. "And what is causing these problems, do you think?"

"I _know_ what's causing them, okay?" Griffon squaked, eyes narrowing in a way that seemed human. "It's a bunch of the half-bloods from that camp on Long Island, the one I flew by a few days ago. A few of 'em were wearing shirts with the camp logo on 'em. But that's not all." The thunderbird took a moment to shift the way he was 'sitting', then continued. "Doppelganger's back, and he took one of the kids and is messing with her plan. I don't know how he came back, I don't know when it was, but I know I saw him there."

"Hmmm…" The figure hummed, putting a hand to his chin in contemplation. "I see. Now, Shadow, how goes our _other_ operation?" With this, the figure turned to face the shadow panther, which purred in a manner similar to a growl before relaying a series of snarls, grunts, and roars to the figure.

"He says things aren't going as planned either." Griffon translated, turning back to Shadow as he spoke. "Says that Dante's friend Trish was in when they first attacked, and a few minutes later, Dante's other lady friend showed up and forced them to retreat. They're not enough in numbers for a full-on bullrush, but Shadow says that they're planning on trying to attack from all sides, all at once."

The figure's face twisted with slight irritation and annoyance, and he rose to his feet with obvious help from his cane. "Very well." he said, before looking to Shadow. "Return to your position, and keep at your assault. If we do not claim the blade by the morning, you will be punished severely, and we will be forced to pull back." Griffon translated and the shadow cat visibly shuddered, discorporating into a two dimensional shadow once more and slinking into the darkness once more.

The figure's gaze locked onto the thunderbird as Shadow retreated, the irritation not leaving his face. "Return to Atropos. Remind her of our bargain, and make sure the Son of Sparda remains alive. He is still of use to us." The figure said, leaning against his cane as he stood.

"What do ya want me to do about the half-bloods when I get there, V-" Griffon was cut off by a hard and piercingly cold look from the figure, causing the bird to widen his eyes and back up a little. "-I mean, V? Do you want me to get rid of them or what?"

V raised a hand to his chin, tracing his thumb and forefinger against his tattooed flesh in thought. "...Do not involve yourself any more than you must." He finally replied. "But their lives should not be of your concern, nor should they be of hers."

Griffon nodded, spreading his wings and taking to the air with a clap of thunder. V watched him go, the book he had been reading through earlier emerging from it's cloth confines once more. As the shape of the bird disappeared above the rooftops, the young human opened the pages of the book once more, flipping to a page and reading across the well-worn text as he had done so many times before. His eyes scanned the page, finding the inked verses once more and reading across it even though he could recite the words in his sleep. His silent chanting resumed, and as he sat against the edge of the roof once more, his eyes closed again and he fell into his trance once more.

If one looked closely at his form, one might be able to see the tattoo ink bleeding off from his skin and out into the air around him.

* * *

Nico's breaths came heavily as Cerberus fixed itself against his belt once more, the Nobody he had been fighting melting into toxic slag a few meters in front of him. "Oouuugghh…" Nico grunted, leaning against the wrecked doors of a car nearby as he waited for the adrenaline in his system to lose its effect on him. That was, by far, one of the hardest fights he had been in, and he was almost sure he had broken a rib and bruised several other muscles at some point during it.

' _ **Why do you linger, boy?'**_ Cerberus growled in his head. ' _ **There is no guarantee of your safety here, and I suspect you drew more than a little attention from that whole stunt.'**_

"Juss…lemme…catch my...breath…" Nico huffed between sharp breaths, feeling his heartbeat begin to slow down as his body realized that he was no longer about to die. "Hoooohh… Alright, I think I'm good now."

Nico pushed himself off of the car, taking slow, labored steps past the pile of toxic sludge that the Nobody had become as he made his way further towards safe and solid ground. A pain in his chest made itself known as he walked, becoming very burning and hard to bear within a few seconds. Regardless, Nico marched onwards, forcing himself to keep walking until it was safe to take a break.

As soon as he made it a few dozen meters from the area he had fought the Nobody in, he collapsed onto the sidewalk and began to pat down his pockets for some ambrosia. Finding a small square of it that he must have taken at some point on his earlier adventures, he pulled it out and took a small bite, feeling his broken rib and bruises and scratches all begin to heal as the delicious (if slightly soured) taste of the ambrosia flowed through his body.

The exhaustion that flowed across him as the pleasant feeling faded almost dulled the sound of shadow-travel behind him.

Nico drew his blade and whirled around, just barely managing to catch the forceful swing of the shadowy claymore that came his way. The impact of the two blades meeting caused a shockwave to slide the two away from each other, putting the two about ten feet away from the point where their blades had met. Nico's feet dug into the pavement as he slid, and as he sidestepped to pull himself free, he shook his hands so that he could fight through the pain of jarring his wrists. Brown eyes met dark crimson ones, and Nico settled into a fighting stance as Doppelganger leveled his sword towards the Son of Hades.

" **I told you there would be consequences for disobeying, boy."** Doppelganger growled, fists closing around the grip of Rebellion's shadowy clone. " **And it seems you've acquired the obedience of the Ice Guardian, somehow. But the games are over, boy. No more holding back on you."**

"Good." Nico growled back, preparing himself for the fight that was to come.

Both of them paused as Nico finished, staring each other down as they both waited for the other to act. Then, suddenly, they both charged, Nico holding his blade to the side as he charged and Doppelganger hurling out its shadowy claymore towards the Son of Hades. Nico ducked under the blade, going in for a slash at the demon's open flank as the two came face to face. Doppelganger swung his arm down, interposing it between the blade and his side as he brought a knee up towards Nico's stomach. Nico twisted, the attack missing him as he tried to get himself maneuvered behind the demon. Doppelganger saw this coming, however, and his sword rematerialized in his hand as he swung towards Nico, forcing the boy to step back and hurriedly block the strike.

Doppelganger stepped back, holding his blade with the grip up by his eyes as black and purple lightning crackled up and down the blade. Nico attempted to lunge for the large opening in his guard on his opposite side, but one of the demon's shadowy fists pulled away from the blade and struck the boy hard across the face, causing him to stagger backwards. Nico recovered just in time to roll out of the way as a wave of explosive, corrupting, purely dark demonic energy tore through the spot he had just been standing. The wave traveled at blinding speeds, slashing across the ceiling, ground, and several cars until it impacted with the far wall of the parking deck, leaving a smoking black gouge in its wake.

Nico looked back to see the shadow demon reduced in size and stature, looking more human as he panted and huffed from the effort. The shadow claymore was laced with white cracks, looking mere seconds from shattering into shards as Doppelganger placed it across his back. Nico took the opportunity to land a solid strike against his head, causing the demon to scream in real pain and stagger backwards. Doppelganger regained his footing, the demonic appearance he had before recreating itself as he began to surge with power.

Nico was forced to parry several punches very quickly as the shadow demon began to move faster and faster, being driven backwards so as to not be pummeled into the ground. Several times, he received a glancing blow or was clipped by an attack that he hadn't managed to parry all the way, and he knew that he would have a palette of bruises come tomorrow. Regardless, he held strong against the forceful strikes Doppelganger threw out, finding an opening and ducking out of the barrage.

Nico rolled to his feet, stabbing at Doppelganger's back as the demon staggered from the punch that Nico had just avoided. The Stygian Iron blade raked off of the shadowy scales as if they had been solid stone, but the force was obviously applied, as Doppelganger staggered forwards a little from the brunt of the swing. The shadow demon retaliated with a roundhouse kick that Nico just barely sidestepped, then flipped backwards and landed in a low, battle ready stance.

" **I underestimated your speed and resilience."** Doppelganger said, voice low and angry. " **It will not happen again."**

With that, the shadow demon's limbs began to change shape, expanding and becoming more bulky as if natural gauntlets, greaves, and vambracers had formed from his skin. Long, hard spikes emerged from the toes of the greaves and the knuckles of the gauntlets, and solid plated of shadow shifted like metal across the shins and forearms of Doppelganger, forming a thick, protective shell around the targets that would be easiest to hit in melee range. Doppelganger cracked his knuckles, then struck the ground hard, creating a crater where he struck and sending a short-range wave of shadow outwards.

Nico put away his sword, as he knew that it wouldn't do him much good unless he could somehow break the thick armor encasing the seemingly less resilient form within. He pulled Cerberus from his belt, the icy nunchaku releasing a cloud of rigid mist as he gripped it tightly and shining in the dim light around them. The two stared each other down, almost exactly as they had a few minutes ago, but when they lunged for one another, something changed.

Doppelganger's lunge changed into a forward dive as a loud sound like metal striking concrete echoed across that entire floor of the parking deck as a fifteen foot tall scythe made entirely out of black, shimmering metal came smashing through several cars, passing straight through the spot where the demon's head would have been. The scythe continued flying, slashing through cars, concrete, and support beams before it erupted through the other side. Doppelganger and Nico's eyes travelled back towards where the massive weapon came from, seeing the massive shadow-cloaked form that had been circling the parking deck rocketing towards them. Six pale, bone-thin arms extended from the sides of the shape as it lunged for the spot where Doppelganger was, the demon that was Dante's shadow only half an hour before punching away each and every frenzied swipe from the arms as it passed by.

The form looped up, phasing through the ceiling and vanishing from sight for a second before it came back down, coming to a stop as it hovered just above the ground in front of the two. The cloak of darkness parted, revealing six arms emerging from underneath the folds of the top of the cloak and an old Victorian dress composed completely of darkness. A hand reached up to part the veil of darkness that covered its face, revealing a white, ceramic mask that bore the visage of a beautiful and haunting woman with three empty eye sockets carved through the mask. Nico took a step back, his free hand reaching down to his sword out of instinct.

The masked demon raised another hand, and the sound of metal slashing through concrete sounded once more as the scythe made an arc and came flying back into her hand. As soon as she had a grip on it, she gripped it with two hands, spun it above her head, and brought it down in a diagonal slash on her other side. The blade sizzled with green energy, and as Nico's gaze fell upon it, he realized that it had become a war scythe in her hands.

" _ **Doppelganger."**_ She snarled without moving her lips, her voice deep, furious, and feminine-sounding. " _ **You should have stayed in the Temen-ni-gru, for the kindest fate I can offer you now is death."**_

" **What do you care, Atropos?"** Doppelganger snarled back, eyes narrowing and fangs parting into a sneer. " **Until now, I had never guessed you would leave the confines of your delusions, but here you are. On this rock, in the world of light, with a few hundred lowly demons answering to your beck and call. What in Mundus's name would bring you here?"**

" _ **That is none of your concern."**_ The now-named Atropos snapped, leveling the blade of the war scythe towards the shadow demon. " _ **Just know that you are interfering in matters that are out of your control. I give you one chance; Turn around and run with your tail tucked between your legs, and I**_ **might** _**consider sparing you once all of this is over."**_

" **In your dreams, seer."** Doppelganger said, the shadowy, demonic imitation of Dante's coat that wrapped around his body parting into a set of wings. These wings unfurled, revealing purple rune-scribed undersides, the wings themselves being almost bat-like in shape but with large, needle-like tips near the union between wing membrane and bone. Doppelganger flapped these wings, taking to the air and drawing the now-solidified shadow double of Rebellion from his back.

" _ **So be it."**_ Atropos replied, her tone monotonous. " _ **Then en garde, Deathvoid!"**_

* * *

 **Sorry if this chapter seems disorganized. The holidays messed with my brain a lot (stress, food, and exhaustion will do that to you), and I'm working on this alongside the next chapter of my other story, so my thoughts are a little messy and jumbled. I apologize. I'll probably be taking a break from this for a little while in order to foucus on my other story, but I will be back eventually.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Treyalexander63917: Thank you for all of your kind words! I did think that while Cerberus never speaks as a Devil Arm, he can speak in his normal form, and Devil Arms have been shown to be able to communicate with their wielder without being able to speak. Also, that's an interesting idea about Nero, but I don't see why Dante would tell them about Vergil. After all, he and Nero are the only descendents of Sparda that aren't MIA (as of this moment).**

 **Red Raven 007: I did not expect you to return and reply to this story again, so congrats for taking me by surprise. And this kind of writing is something that I am aware that I do, but I am not a fan that joined on after the E3 trailer. I've been a fan since about the summer of 2017, because that's when my friend introduced me to DMC4, but as of right now, I have only played DMC 4 completely and part of DMC1 (the friend who owns the HD collection I was playing on had to move, and I had to help him with it), so some of what I write may not be of the level of someone who has played every game and knows everything about the lore. I have watched as much as I can about the other games, though, so I know what goes on in them.**

 **Kamencolin: I have a feeling that the Divinity Statue would be a little weird to see, as they just seem to show up at random places in the world (It makes sense for things like the Temen-ni-gru and Mallet Island, but I don't see why they can be found in the middle of the city in Fortuna or on Dumary Island) and don't really serve some kind of purpose other than upgrading (something that I'm not sure the demigods need and that Dante wouldn't need, save for new moves and items, which he doesn't really need in this story). But if you can find a way for them to fit, then I'd be glad to input them.**

 **Ptl: He does, but he'll eat them on pizza regardless, at least by DMC 4. And thanks for your support!**

 **Guest: Thank you! I'm not sure how I'll include Nero if I do decide to put him in, but I do have plans for the end, where he will make an appearance. Nero's the first character I was introduced to when I got into the series, and he's kinda stuck with me across the whole time I've been a fan, so I'm just as excited to include him as you are.**

 **Anyways, If you like this, why not show me some support? I'd love to hear feedback, as well as tips on how to write any of these characters, as I'm still kinda feeling unsure about my portrayal. Reviews are always appreciated, and I love hearing your feedback, whether positive or negative.**

 **That Random Demon, signing off!**


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